The current default crisis reminds me of a never-ending game of Chutes and Ladders. Just when you are full of glee thinking that you're making progress, you fall precipitously down a chute to square one.

It's national torture. And unfortunately, it's not a game. A default would have devastating consequences for children, families, and communities.

This madness has got to stop.

*Sign on to a letter now to tell your members of Congress to stop the madness and do right by our country:

http://action.momsrising.org/letter/SolveDefaultCrisis/

By signing on above, you'll be part of a growing movement urging our national leaders to take immediate action to resolve this crisis with a balanced approach. Together, we can stop the bullies in Congress who are doing everything they can to protect tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations while they are driving us closer and closer to economic catastrophe simply to score political points.

It's un-American to play political football with our nation's children and our elderly. And this has got to stop.

Question: Why can't we just tune this nightmare out? Answer: Because the outcome of this debate will define the economic future of our nation's children and our aging parents.

What's happening now?

Negotiations between President Obama and Congress have ground to a halt and Senate Majority Leader Reid and House Speaker Boehner have introduced competing plans in Congress to resolve the debt ceiling crisis. Neither one of these proposals currently has enough support to pass Congress and both are likely to change.

As Speaker Boehner's plan failed to win the support of the extremists in his party, it is likely that his next proposal will contain even more devastating cuts to programs like Head Start, K-12 education, Pell Grants, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, without asking big corporations and millionaires to pay a single dollar to resolve this problem. (1)

The plans to resolve this crisis are changing daily, so this is a critical time for our nation's families to weigh in.

*Sign on to a letter now to tell your members of Congress to stop the madness and do right by our country:

http://action.momsrising.org/letter/SolveDefaultCrisis/

You can be sure that the pin-striped corporate lobbyists will vigorously represent the interests of big corporations and the very wealthy until the bitter end of this debate, so we need to make sure our voices are heard!

Thank you for standing up for America's families!

1) For more information on Speaker Boehner's current proposal see: Statement by Robert Greenstein, President of the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, on House Speaker Boehner’s New Budget Proposal