Tax Hikes, the National Debt, and the "Fiscal Cliff"

Posting this in the spirit of non-partisan concern for not just this but also the looming "fiscal cliff" that is bad for all of us.  Matters not your party affiliation or who you'll vote for this fall.  We all need to be concerned about these topics and in case you didn't know our Congress went into recess last week without doing anything about these issues. They are it seems utterly deadlocked in the bitterest way on nearly everything. For example, they recessed but didn't adjourn because they could not agree on a simple adjournment resolution. This is embarassing for us as a country, much less them as the US Congress.

Issues:

Looming tax hikes and deduction losses/limit changes:
http://www.atr.org/days-taxmageddon-a7203

"Fiscal cliff", triggering across-the-board spending cuts on all manner of things, for good and bad, affecting employment for millions:
http://moneymorning.com/tag/fiscal-cliff-2013/

National debt now exceeds GDP. Imagine owing $100k in credit card debt but you make only $95k/yr. and need to borrow money from another credit card or other source to pay the interest on your $100k of debt. That's where we're at. The Fed has enacted an "open-ended quantitave easing" which means we are going to print more and more money and auction off more and more debt until "the job scene improves". In the mean time, our currency loses real value due to inflation. The major debt raters like Standard and Poors have warned the US sovereign debt rate will be downgraded soon if we don't show a clear plan to get out of our debt problem. This is no small problem. It is very serious and like the other issues above will have big effects on us all, regardless of political affiliation.
http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/US-Debt-Economic-Output/2011/11/21/id/418767

You can say that one party or president did more to create this mess than another. But at this point it doesn't matter. It's like arguing about which crewmember is most responsible for the ship hitting the iceberg while the Titanic continues to sink. At this point to what degree a particular administration or Congress is responsible isn't relevant. What is is the need for effective action from our leaders in Congress and in the WH.

What do you want to see happen about these things before inaction torpedoes us further? Tell your Congessoids. Contact info can be found at http://www.congress.gov/.