VIDEO:The Debt Bomb Explained....Cameo Andrew Jackson Reference

OK, Row 2 Seat 4 fans, here's some fun and games on a serious subject -- the national debt.

I sat down today with Bruce Reed, executive director of President Obama's debt commission, for his first TV interview (see excerpts on the Special Report web page).

After the formal, elegantly lit interview, I asked Reed to do a thought experiment about what would happen if the commission fails -- meaning doesn't produce recommendations Obama and Congress act upon.

We shot this in shocking white florescent light to create a mood of stark choices and the harsh, unblinking light of history (actually, I think it was a mistake shooting it this way...but that first explanation sounds SO much better and allows me to indulge my David Lean alter ego).

Anyway, in this brief example of the cost of doing nothing, I mention our 7th President, Andrew Jackson. Why? Because Jackson is the only president in history to pay down the federal debt COMPLETELY. In 1835 the federal debt was $33,733.05. Jackson paid it off in 1836. But a deep recession hit in 1837. It lasted 7 years. The federal debt rose tenfold in the recession's first year.

Still, Jackson did what no other president had done before or has done since. What's more, it is the portrait of  "Old Hickory" that adorns the $20 bill, a piece of legal tender that figures prominently in our little thought experiment on the consequences of inaction.

Remember, our current federal debt is $14 trillion.

This thought experiment is done with a light touch and requires a rare demonstration of comic styling from a Washington hand, the aforementioned Mr. Reed, utterly out of step with his typical wonkish habits and speech.

Herewith, the debt, doing nothing, and Andrew Jackson.

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