CBO: US likely to fall off 'fiscal cliff' if Bush-era tax cuts allowed to expire

It won't be 50 years, but you're living it right now.

 

There is absolutely no sound reason that the U.S. must go back into recession (as it seems Paul Ryan's austerity plan would have us do) to manage the debt crisis. We can sustain modest growth and bring the debt under control. It's not a one or the other scenario.

 

If Romney wins the election, you can be sure the GOP will fall all over themselves to make sure a depression doesn't happen on their boy's watch.

If Obama is re-elected, get ready for Armageddon.

 

Oh, I'm ready.

 

I'm living in the generation that this will eventually happen to, or are you saying I'm actually living the fallout right now?

 

You're living the first wave of the fallout. Nominal unemployment of 8.1%, real unemployment probably significantly beyond that. Inflation. Tepid growth. And we need massive government deficits just to prop the economy up to get to all that.

 

Eh, if this is as bad as it gets, I can handle it.

I don't disagree that the debt is a major problem, but it isn't really one that's going to be solved with spending cuts and then larger tax cuts that remove more from the budget than the spending cuts put back in.

 

Completely agree. Trying to tax cut the deficit is pure loony tunes.

 

If anyone thinks Romney would reduce the national debt or cut the deficit in a significant manner, they are fooling themselves. Speaking of that, Reagan did a hell of a job cutting the deficit, right?

 

Which brings us full circle. How do you stop the lunatic fringe in the House from holding the country hostage like it did last summer?

 

Talking about lunacy ...