Seems a bit silly to discuss this still in RomneyRyan thread, plus other discussions are happening there.

The US has a completely unsustainable budget deficit currently that is blowing up the debt:GDP ratio at rates and levels never seen before in history except for WWII. Yet nothing is being done to deal with it, unless this gets dealt with properly then we run the risk of a real catastrophe that makes the last half a decade since the financial crisis started look like a midsummer's day. The last thing the US or the world needs is an American Greece. Theoretically since the debt ceiling crisis last year forced the issue there should be the upcoming "Fiscal Cliff" to start dealing with the deficit but already the President and others (including some on this forum) seem to want to fudge the issue and avoid it. Either the spending cuts and tax rises detailed in the "Cliff" should happen, or something else equivalent should.

There always seems to be a reason to delay it. The politics isn't right, the economy is too fragile ... well we're now in a position where its not going to get any better than this again, especially on the political front. Whenever the cuts/tax rises happen both parties are going to have to make sacrifices that piss off large parts of their base, its the only way to get America back on secure footings. But who can make those decisions and when? Working backwards:

In 2016 - Election Year. For the second time in a decade, but rare before then, the US Presidential election will have neither party running the President/Veep. Nobodies going to want to make any difficult decisions/decisions that upset their base in this year. Obama will be a lame duck with attention on what comes next.
In 2015 - Hustings and pushing starting as candidates try unofficially to jostle for position for next years race. Again, no difficult decisions/pissing off the base can happen.
In 2014 - Election Year. An exceptionally large number of Democrat Senators (20) elected in Obama's victory year of 2008 will be up for re-election and both parties will be pushing hard to win majority control of the Senate. Names starting to come out for 2016 Presidential race. Who's going to rock the boat now?

2014-16 will be too political to deal with difficult decisions unless forced to.
2017 is too late to face reality - and it'll be a decade then since the financial crisis started in 2007. Recessions happen every 8-10 years on average so there's every possibility a new recession/crisis will start by then which will make the economy shakier and the fiscal position even worse anyway.

So I think America has a choice. Start implementing some form of budgetary control, austerity if you will, by choice in 2013. Preferably get Obama and Boehner in a room together as often as possible between now and the New Year and either agree to implement the Cliff cuts/rises, or hammer out some equivalent. The alternative is to admit that you're never going to by choice deal with this issue. Either do nothing and imagine it'll go away, or do nothing until its too late and like Greece the market forces the issue. Pushing this issue away until some distant "tomorrow" is no longer feasible.