With the Labor Department’s most recent unemployment data still hovering around 9.8 percent, the central debate in Congress lately has focused on how to create more jobs, and the discussion has expectedly focused on the two theories often proposed to jump start an economy: cuting taxes or increasing government spending.

In the long run, however, both strategies may be steering the nation’s economy over the cliff.

Tax-cut proponents say that raising anyone’s taxes now could endanger the fragile economic recovery that has taken place. Let people keep more of the money they earn, allowing them to spend it, which will allow businesses to pay more and hire more workers.

President Obama’s controversial “stimulus” package represents the other approach: government uses tax dollars to buy stuff, funneling money into the economy so that businesses have enough cash flow to stay alive and keep paying their employees.

The ballooning federal deficit (when a government has spent more money than it actually has in its pocket) means that drastic action will eventually be required, or our economy will only get worse.

“Federal debt would be on an unsustainable path that would ultimately reduce national income,” Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said.

In other words, if the country acquires so much debt that it can’t qualify for any more loans, Chinese repo men will eventually come take the figurative car currently sitting in our symbolic driveway.

Elmsdorf testified before the Senate Sept. 28, saying that making the 2003 Bush-era tax cuts permanent would likely double the currently anticipated budget deficit in 2020. By then, the government would have to significantly increase taxes (what Republicans hate) and severely cut spending (what Democrats hate) in order to balance the budget.

For now, Congress voted to keep the tax cuts in place for two more years. Spending levels will keep adding to the deficit each year.

So, the question remains, how long can the economy continue to afford continued tax cuts and a government that spends more than it earns?