We have about eight years to avert it, but every year until then has to involve drastic reductions in government size/spending (i.e. 1 trillion per year). Failing that, it's gonna to get very interesting. Still hoping?
When the delegates emerged from the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got?” Franklin replied, “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”