1) was definitely the one I was going for - essentially in a bid to show how certain outcomes can / can't occur given the current state and laws of a government

1) was definitely the one I was going for - essentially in a bid to show how certain outcomes can / can't occur given the current state and laws of a government. ie: if you want to pass a tax cut, you need to do x, y and z, though this is dependent on the current state of the budget, etc etc (this is actually happening now in US Congress).