Right on, Gregg.  Timely piece.  While people are arguing over how to address the budget gap, what's being lost is the recession train wreck we're just starting to experience.  Dermot Cole's piece describes the latest budget analysis tool, where you can change variables, such as interest rates, price of oil, etc. to see how that impacts the budget.  What we need is a similar tool that shows how many jobs will be lost, decline in average income, decline in house values, number of schools closed, etc. based on those variables.

We need to see how these decisions affect US, not just politicians, before we finally wake up.