Are you ready to step up yet?

You love your country. You consider yourself a patriot. You lament — no, you curse — the government’s fiscal cowardice, rushing toward a $20 trillion debt at light speed.

Well, Mr. and Mrs. All American, what are you going to do about it?

We’ll tell you what you could do, besides complain. You could come to grips with the fact that you’re going to have to make some sacrifices yourself rather than wait for presidential voodoo or insist that this is somebody else’s problem.

This problem is yours, mine, ours.

Take Social Security.

One headline published Wednesday afternoon read, “If lawmakers don’t act, Social Security’s trust fund will be tapped out in about 18 years.” While it’s true that lawmakers need to act, preferably sooner than later, the headline intimates that this is yet another problem for the government to solve. Haven’t we figured out yet, after more than 200 years, that government solves problems only when the people insist on solving them? Our government keeps spending because we the people keep demanding federal sustenance for our personal fiefdoms.

Don’t bother looking for solutions from anybody named Trump or Clinton. Donald Trump has no plan to address impending crises for Social Security and Medicare. For that matter, the apolitical Moody’s estimates that Trump’s overall economic plan for the nation would result in the loss of 3.5 million American jobs. Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton is on record as stating that Social Security benefits should be increased. Yes, that means the program’s costs would go up, not down.

So here’s the impending impact if nothing changes. According to the Social Security and Medicare trustees’ annual report, Social Security will have just enough revenue in 2034 to pay 79 percent of promised benefits. That means instead of getting, say, $2,000 a month, you’d be in line for $1,580.

Just to make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years would require raising the payroll tax rate and/or lowering the paid benefits. The 75-year solution’s numbers would be met by increasing the payroll tax rate for the vast majority of us from 12.4 percent to 14.98 percent or cutting benefits by 16 percent. You could also postpone the crisis with some combination of increasing the tax while reducing the benefits.

So, how many of you still paying into the system will step right up and volunteer to pay more? And how many of you on the receiving line are willing to take a little less?

Until there are tens of millions of actual patriots’ hands in the air, Uncle Sam will just keep spending.