放血和用水蛭吸血一度是治疗病患的常用方式，直到聪明人开始质疑这一做法。
Bloodletting and leeches were once the normal way of treating most illnesses until smart people started questioning the practice.
所以，要求削减开支的人士就好比中世纪的医生，他们通过放血来医治病人，结果只能让病情加重。
So those demanding spending cuts now are like medieval doctors who treated the sick by bleeding them, and thereby made them even sicker.
医生给他开的处方是饥饿疗法和放血疗法，结果却只是加剧了他的症状。
His doctor prescribed starvation and bloodletting, which only exaggerated his symptoms.
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