The term "fiscal cliff" is used to describe the conundrum that the U.S. government will face at the end of 2012, when the Budget Control Act of 2011 is scheduled to go into effect. It's not really a cliff, it's more of a slight incline. Yet all the Chicken Littles of Congress, the administration and the media talk as if it were the end of the world.

Among the laws set to change Jan. 1 are the end of last year's temporary 2 percent payroll tax cut, the end of certain tax breaks for businesses, shifts in the alternative minimum tax that would take a larger bite, the end of the 3 percent to 4 percent tax cuts from 2001-2003, and the beginning of taxes related to President Obama's health care law.

The current U.S. debt is $13.8 trillion, which means that each of our shares of that debt is $44,748.

Federal spending this year 2012 exceeds federal revenue by more than $1 Trillion.

So tell your representatives to get a balanced budget and pay down the federal debt.

If they don't you're looking at a national debt in 2020 of about $20 trillion.