I believe that we will have to "go over the cliff" at some point as spending is out of control and the entitlements will not be dealt with.  Hence, I go for going over the cliff now when we still have some national wealth with which to cope.  The very tough years will come at sometime.  We have made many financial mistakes as a nation and we will have to pay for this grave error. Politically we cannot correct our debt; it will take a cliff crisis. I am convinced that we will fall over the cliff at some time and as I previously stated, we need to go ahead and do it now. I think that a controlled fall is better than a 20 year out "Greece" situation.  When we are in such debt that we cannot get a loan from another nation or sell bonds as they will be worthless, we will be jerked around by the world banks and other nations.  We will have trouble controlling our future.  Let us face hard facts now and work our way out.