Congress Should Prepare for a Historic Showdown

Fiscal-policy brinkmanship might be the only thing that can save us from catastrophe.

It is astonishing how far and how rapidly the financial situation in the United States has deteriorated. Perhaps we have grown accustomed to the wailing about debt and deficits, but it has not always been so.

When Ronald Reagan took office, government debt held by the public was about $650 billion. The few liberals who still bother to criticize his presidency will concede that he won the Cold War, defeated inflation, and started a long-lasting economic boom, but...