Former First District Congressman Tim Penny says he was disappointed with the last-minute compromise Congress came up with in the so-called fiscal cliff debate calling it a cliff of their own making.
                        
Penny, who is a member of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told Winona Radio News, spending cuts need to be addressed by both Republicans and Democrats in the next two months and that won't be easy.

Penny says the agreement does nothing about the long term budget challenge and may force lawmakers to address cuts to social security, medicare and medicaid to reach the next agreement.

Citizens have a chance to weigh in on the federal budget with the Committee for  Responsible Federal Budget's  'Citizen's Petition to Fix the Debt.'  Penny says some 400,000 people have signed the online petition at FixtheDebt.org