The Congressional Budget Office tells us it will reach 50% by 2038.

WSJ: Arthur Brooks: America and the Value of 'Earned Success'

"We had campaigned in saying what the Republican Congressional Budget Office told us: Nothing contributed more to the budget deficit than the tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America, " Pelosi said in an interview Sunday with Fox News.

CNN: Crowley: Balance of power trying to find balance

The Congressional Budget Office thinks that would send the US straight back into recession in the first half of 2013.

BBC: Gauging the fiscal cliff

That is a lot of money, but it is what the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reckons the US federal government would have needed to borrow over the next 10 years if Congress and the President had done nothing.

BBC: Cliffhanger: Still hanging

The Congressional Budget Office forecasts that plunging over the cliff would likely thrust us back into a recession, albeit briefly.

FORBES: We Don't Need Another Short-Term Patch for our Fiscal Woes