The Three Options

Does the US still have something silly called the "fiscal cliff" looming? I haven't paid enough attention to the mainstream pressers of late. It's too hard not to laugh at their silliness.

Instead, I thought I would distill the various choices and just for fun examine the options. When it comes to the Federal deficit/debt situation, it seems to me we have just three courses of action:

• Continue to spend more than the IRS collects in revenues, racking up ever more bond debt in the process;
  
• Balance the budget; and
  
• Create a revenue surplus and start paying off old bonds.

I know that according to both of our mainstreams, the press and the economists, only the third option is "viable" to our country's continuing economic health. After all, if we don't do something soon, won't something horrible happen involving interest or our children? ( That depends upon who you ask, of course. )

X-Posted to talk_politics.