Act

Spread the word.

Every person in America will be hurt by our long-term fiscal mess, but many don't know it yet. Others know the problem's there, but think we can put off dealing with it. You can change that.

How? By telling people about it. And we've made it easy. You can add one of our widgets to your blog or home page, add our MySpace and Facebook pages to your friends lists, Digg our blog, add us to your Del.icio.us bookmarks, or use any of the other options we've listed here. The difference between an A-list problem and everything else is how much people care.

Work on solutions

If there's going to be any progress in solving this problem, we've got to have an open, frank discussion about what it entails and what can be done. In our Perspectives section, we lay out some potential strategies for solving the problem. But those choices are just a starting point for discussion. It's going to take hard work, touch choices and sacrifices. Our online discussion is a way to jump in and start figuring out where our country goes from here.

Get in a candidate's face

In the end, solving this problem means that the leaders in Washington need to start making different decisions and set different priorities. Some of them care about the nation's fiscal crisis and some of them don't, but all of them care about your vote.

So you need to get tough. When candidates are proposing their plans for the country - and pointedly not explaining how they're going to pay for them - you need to start asking questions. The Concord Coalition's Key Questions list is a good place to start.

Organize locally

You can work through the alternatives for solving the nation's long-term fiscal problems in your community, much the same way you can online. Our Budget Toolkit gives you all the resources you need.

In addition, Facing Up will be running ChoiceDialogues and Fiscal Wake-Up Tour sessions in communities around the country (see upcoming events). They're a great way to get organized, talk through solutions and make your voice heard.