Many are wondering how Congress will deal with the so-called fiscal cliff.

Our consumer warrior Clark Howard says they must first deal with a key underlying problem.

“The congressional leaders and the President…they don’t all know each other anymore,” he said.

Howard says members of the House and Senate travel back to their districts or states all the time, so there's a real disconnect among them.  He says President Obama isn’t helping the situation right now by traveling around the country making “rally kinds of speeches.”

“Right now political Washington knows that we have a big fever, but they’re not treating the fever.   At least not yet,” he said.

If he were President, he says he'd invite the House and Senate leaders from both parties to Camp David and spend as many days necessary to find common ground.

“They all know we’re broke.  It’s just a matter of how you deal with broke.”

If the country goes over the so-called fiscal cliff, Howard says it will cause some harm and downgrade the country’s credit-worthiness.

But he says it won’t be the Armageddon it’s being made out to be.

“What’s bad for the country is if we don’t deal with the long-term budget deficit.”

Howard says the math is “staring us right in the face.”  He thinks the country’s position in the world will be greatly affected.

“The promises that we’ve made, we cannot keep.  And we have to deal with the real world, like you and I would in our own budget, and this is: you cannot spend what you don’t have and have no hope of having.”

You can hear financial and consumer tips from Clark Howard on WOKV weeknights from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m.