It seems to me that the government's hands are rather tied becasue the government has very large deficit, and it's running curly from deficits So something like a third of the governments' revenues in income taxes it takes in go through paid interests on its debt.

好像政府现在,能力有限，因为庞大的赤字,政府也还在尽量避免,赤字情况,政府通过收入所得税',拿到的钱中1/3都,要拿去还政府欠债的利息。

普林斯顿公开课 - 国际座谈会课程节选

That means, according to my source, that Mr Hunt's hands are tied.

BBC: News Corp may face fit-and-proper test

For one thing, Mr Obasanjo's hands are tied as those of his military predecessors were not by the need to pay some attention to human rights.

ECONOMIST: Nigeria

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the Postal Service's hands are tied by congressional inaction on a bill that would allow it to reduce the payments.

BBC: US Postal Service in $16bn loss