Legislation was been passed late Tuesday night to prevent our nation from going off the Fiscal Cliff. This will avoid tax increases on most Americans and spending cuts which could have sent the economy back into a recession.

The measure raises taxes on incomes over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples. It extends long-term unemployment benefits, prevents a cut in fees for doctors who treat Medicare patients and cancels a $900 pay increase due to lawmakers in March.

Former Congressman Roscoe Bartlett said the deficit remains a concern for our nation and needs to be addressed or future generations could be effected.

"Our deficit is going to be about $1.2 trillion. To avoid the sequestration, we needed to find $1.2 trillion worth of cuts over ten years but our deficit is $1.2 trillion each year," Bartlett said.

He said President Obama and Congress can't seem to come close to bringing down the deficit.

"We can't even come close to saving 10% off of our deficit and every six hours, it's another billion dollars added to our deficit and therefore our debt," Bartlett said.

Now, the House and Senate will have to deal with across the board spending cuts which were set to go into affect in January, but have been postponed for about two months.