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America鈥檚 budgetary scorekeepers have published a postelection 鈥淔YI鈥� for the president and Congress, with this blunt message: That 鈥渇iscal cliff鈥� thing is dangerous, but so is the opposite policy of ignoring the national debt.

鈥淔iscal cliff鈥� is the nickname for a collection of tax increases and federal spending cuts that are scheduled to take effect at the start of next year.

Economists at the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) warned in a that allowing those tax hikes and spending cuts to occur 鈥渨ill probably cause the economy to fall back into a recession next year.鈥�

But, the CBO report added in the next breath, letting the policy changes take effect would actually 鈥渕ake the economy stronger later in the decade and beyond.鈥� The reason: The tax hikes and spending cuts would reduce federal deficits, thus avoiding a dangerous surge in federal debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP).

What this implies is that there鈥檚 a very tricky job ahead for a Democratic president, a Republican-led House, and a Democratic-majority Senate.

The ideal way forward, suggested in the CBO report and in other independent reviews, would be to change the cliff into a gradual slope 鈥� one that avoids recession in the near-term but still leads down a path of deficit reduction. It鈥檚 not just a matter of saying, 鈥淟et鈥檚 postpone those tax and spending changes.鈥�

Elected officials in both parties have endorsed the general idea of long-term fiscal reform. But the choices are difficult. The new report, titled 鈥淐hoices for Deficit Reduction,鈥� makes a big deal of that.

It talks about various options for reducing entitlement benefits, cutting other federal spending, or raising new tax revenue. A mix of those approaches may very well be needed, the CBO implies, because of the magnitude of the mismatch between expected revenues and spending.

The report is both a nudge to action and a partial tool kit for lawmakers as they bargain in the coming days and weeks.

Some overview points from the report and other recent CBO analysis:

鈥� The option of doing nothing isn鈥檛 pretty. If policymakers push the economy straight over the cliff on Jan. 1, a recession would probably result, yielding a decline of 0.5 percent in GDP for the calendar year. The unemployment rate would shoot up to 9.1 percent, the CBO predicts.

鈥� The option of fully removing the cliff would result in an economy that grows, but not at a roaring pace. A separate analysis released Thursday by the CBO estimated that keeping Bush-era tax rates in place, nixing the cuts in defense and other spending, and making other changes (including extending payroll-tax relief for workers) would push GDP up to a growth rate of about 2.4 percent.

鈥� But fully removing the cliff adds a lot to the federal deficit. Spending would exceed revenue by an extra $503 billion in 2013. That鈥檚 equal to more than 3 percent of a year鈥檚 GDP.

鈥� Doing nothing to stem the red ink would have long-term consequences. The CBO outlines negative effects including an impaired ability to respond to unexpected challenges, as well as 鈥渁n increase in the likelihood of a fiscal crisis, in which investors would lose confidence in the government鈥檚 ability to manage its budget, and the government would thus lose the ability to borrow at affordable interest rates.鈥�