My first few days in Washington as Delaware's junior senator were largely split between the classroom and the cloakroom.
I would routinely go from orientation sessions with other new Senators straight to votes on the floor, living the contrast between the way we believe things ought to be and the way things are.
The post-election lame duck session reinforced the tension of that push and pull, laying the groundwork for the 112th Congress -- which started Wednesday -- that I and many of my colleagues worry will grind to an unproductive standstill right out of the gate.
While there were some remarkable achievements in the concluding weeks of the 111th Congress -- healthcare for 9/11 first responders, the New START treaty, and the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell among them -- not enough was done to address the most important issue facing Americans today: getting people back to work.
There can be no higher priority for the Senate than finding ways to stimulate job creation in the United States. With unemployment at 9.8 percent and the federal deficit set to eclipse $14 trillion, it is critical that this new Congress focus on job creation, rein-in expenditures, and widen the tax base -- getting people off of unemployment and into the workforce.
The contentious debate over the extension of President Bush's tax cuts during the lame duck session resulted in a package that did not go nearly far enough to address job creation but reflected -- at least in part -- a necessarily pragmatic approach to the immediate challenges Americans face.
The Sunday before the vote on that package, I was volunteering at a community event in North Wilmington. A friend came and sat down next to me.
She told me that most people didn't realize it, but that her husband was laid off a year before and was still constantly searching for work. They had two young children and a mortgage, and they were hanging on by just a thread -- and that thread was fraying. Unemployment insurance was the only thing preventing them from losing their home. She hated the idea of extending tax breaks for millionaires, but for her it was much more pragmatic than a political debate -- for her, it was about keeping her family together.
My vote came down to an assessment of risk. I trusted the advice of the economists who lined up to say that letting the tax cuts expire on the middle class (and failing to extend unemployment insurance) would have a negative impact on our economy and would destroy thousands of American families -- including that of my friend in Wilmington.
It was too great a risk NOT to act.
The final version of the deal President Obama and Vice President negotiated did have some very positive measures. Measures like the 13-month extension of unemployment insurance, extension of the research and development tax credit, and others that will help create jobs.
To say it comes at a high cost, though, is an understatement. The nearly $1 trillion in additional debt our nation will have to take on to pay for this will have to be addressed by this Congress, as will how we got here.
Too much legislation was left for dead because a week of floor time was needed to overcome the threat of a Republican filibuster, resulting in a troubling number of bills passed by the House with bipartisan support left unconsidered by the Senate.
This partisan political paralysis has to stop.
The tension between the way things ought to be and the way things are is never clearer than on those days when I commute to and from Washington.
When I'm back here in Delaware I get to meet with lots of folks who are working hard to grow their businesses and put more of their neighbors back to work. Far from the rhetoric of the policy debates that dominate the national news, these are the people on the front line of our state's steady efforts to rebuild our workforce.
By putting job creation front and center, the new Congress can make real strides toward restoring our economy and making the way things are the way they ought to be.
This op-ed appeared in The Wilmington News Journal.
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