Excerpt: What is the biggest threat to the U.S. economy? According to Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag, it is not credit famine, the long-term price of energy, competition from China, the loss of jobs overseas, or even a surfeit of Chrysler SUVs. It is, Orszag declared in October, 'the nation's looming fiscal gap -- which is driven primarily by rising health care costs.' Healthcare inflation cannot be ignored, Orszag added, because 'If we fail to put the nation on a sounder fiscal course... we will ultimately reach a point where investors [will] lose confidence and no longer be as willing to purchase Treasury debt at anything but exorbitant interest rates.'

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