Nonpartisan, Year-End Push to Tame the Debt

With just over two weeks for the White House and congressional Republicans to reach common ground on the nation's budget before the U.S. economy risks tipping over the so-called fiscal cliff, a group aimed at putting the U.S. on a better economic course released its first television ad highlighting a unified call to tame the nation's growing debt.The Campaign to Fix the Debt, a non-partisan organization, released a 60-second spot that will run nationwide on national broadcast. It will also feature ads in subway stations. The group said the buy will total $3 million and begin airing this week.

The spot features concerned people from diverse backgrounds pushing for a solution to the country's fiscal issues.

"It's really important that both sides of the aisle work on fixing our national debt," an Army Reservist says. "Everyone needs to work together to get this done."

A teacher continues: "I would love for everything to start getting resolved now so that I can tell my children and the children that I teach and not be lying to them when I say that there is a bright future and you can do anything that you want to do."

A farmer and physician weigh in, pushing a bipartisan fix to balance the nation's budget for the sake of future economic stability.

"The debt that we have right now, if we don't fix it, it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger for our kids to the point where it won't be reversible in our lifetime," says a businesswoman with a baby on her lap.

Negotiations between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner appear to be at a stalemate as the weeks wind down to the year-end deadline to avoid a series of automatic federal spending cuts and tax rate increases set to go in place if a deal is not met.

And while this week saw meetings between Obama and Boehner, no progress appears to have been made.

Obama and Democrats remain steadfast that taxes on wealthier Americans will go up as a part of budget deal, sticking at the current rate for the lower two tax brackets. Republicans oppose any increase in taxes and argue for closing tax loopholes and deductions as a means to generate revenue.