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 learning more about the problem and then telling people about it. And we've made it easy. You can face off in interactive budget-balancing games, add one of our widgets to your blog or home page, join the @facingup discussion here and on Twitter, find us on Facebook, Digg our blog, bookmark us with Del.icio.us, comment on your own blog, or use any of many other options listed below. The difference between an A-list problem and everything else is just how much people really 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, tough 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 policymaker's face

In the end, solving this problem means that the leaders - elected officials and other policymakers - 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 lawmakers and policymakers propose plans and don't explain how they'll be paid for, you need to start asking questions. And for a little help tracking down the e-mail addresses and phone numbers of party leaders and lawmakers, check out Take It To The Next Level, part of Public Agenda's Citizen's Survival Kit.

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 (speaking of which, our blogroll is a great resource for this discussion). Our Budget Toolkit will give you a running start. Another way to do it: use our Students Face Up to the Nation's Finances nonpartisan curriculum as a discussion-starter for a community event or series of events to hash out the issues.

Suggest more actions!

This list is just a starting point. We're not limited to five - the more the better, actually - so start thinking and join the discussion here at FacingUp.org.