Our economy is on the upswing; our economy is still in trouble.  It all depends on who you’re listening to and what time of the year it is.  But one thing is for sure: more than 4 million Americans have been jobless for more than six months.

        The current battle in Washington, D.C. over whether or not to extend federal jobless benefits is a decidedly partisan one – and it shouldn’t be.  The jobless need help.

        The federal jobless benefits that were extended for a two-year period expired on Dec. 21, 2013.  The number of Americans who stopped getting the emergency jobless aid on that date was 1.3 million.  The number of Pennsylvanians who stopped getting aid on that date was 86,900.

        Last week President Obama said, “The Republicans went home for the holidays and let that lifeline expire.”  He should have said Congress went home for the holidays and let that lifeline expire.  Both sides need to compromise.  A temporary extension is possible but a longer or permanent one requires answers to funding questions.

        While the simple solution may be to “print more money,” at some point in time we need to come up with a solid funding solution.  Many Republicans were asking for cuts elsewhere to fund an extension to the benefits.

        The United States pumps about $50 billion into other countries each year in economic development and humanitarian aid, among other things (read military aid), in our never-ending attempt to win support of our foreign policy goals.  According to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States is, by far, the top donor to the world’s troubles.

        Maybe it’s time for Congress to take a serious look at those giveaways and make some temporary decisions to transfer some of the money here to benefit the people in the good old United States of America while we get over our own troubles.  But that will only help if our government officials are serious about creating new jobs and keeping the jobs that are already here.  If we keep spending and not worrying about where it’s coming from, our future is bleak.

        The war in Iraq has cost more than $816 billion since 2003, and today the flag of Al Qaeda flies over the major city of Fallujah – a city where 100 American soldiers died and another 1,000 were injured during fighting there in 2004.  The war in Afghanistan has cost nearly $700 billion since 2001. 

        The wars are now costing United States taxpayers more than $11 million every hour.  Every hour American taxpayers are paying $1.61 million for foreign military assistance.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could suspend the wars for a few days (better yet, permanently) to fund emergency jobless benefits and grow our economy – the key being the growth of our economy?  Without growth, nothing will change no matter what the so-called Capitol Hill pundits say.

        Our country is already in record debt – one that will transfer to our children, our grandchildren and even our great-grandchildren unless we get serious about righting our economic ship.

        Because in the future, our money, no matter who we give it to or where we try to spend it, may not be worth the paper it’s printed on.