By Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz

As we've all watched the back and forth on TV about the debt negotiations or the impasse regarding the Federal Aviation Administration, it seems like Washington just can’t get it right.

The challenges facing our country weren’t created overnight and our two political parties have two fundamentally different views of how our country should address them.  Given that, it is important to place the debate in perspective.

Even before the economic crisis hit in 2008 the signs of trouble for the American family were there.  

Between 2000 and 2007 under President Bush, health care premiums nearly doubled, the cost of a college education skyrocketed, and median family income dropped by almost $1,000. 

Around dinner tables across America, families were finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. 

And then the financial crisis hit.  Major financial institutions disappeared overnight, GM and Chrysler both filed for bankruptcy and nearly 800,000 Americans were losing their jobs every month.  The scariest part was no one even knew where the bottom was or how much worse it could get. 

These were the challenges facing our president when he stepped up to take the oath of office on that cold January morning in 2009.

Over the past two years I have devoted myself to helping our president stop the economic bleeding, begin to get the economy turned around and restore the American dream by getting Americans back to work.

The result?  We’ve had 17 straight months of job growth with 2.4 million private sector jobs created and all three American auto companies are turning a profit, ramping up production, and hiring back American workers.  While we’ve come a long way, we still have work to do.

The recent crises – from the debt ceiling debates to preventing the Federal Aviation Administration from shutting down – have served as distractions from what we all need to be laser-focused on right now: creating jobs.

Sure, we need to be concerned about our national debt and I support the president’s efforts to implement a large and balanced package to do just that, but creating jobs is the best way to address our long-term debt.  Economic growth and an increase in employment would reduce spending on social services and boost revenue from corporate profits and get more people working.

So, with millions of people still unemployed, I believe that our number one focus should be job creation.  

But how do we create more jobs? One way is by investing in needed infrastructure improvements.  In the Senate there is legislation to create an infrastructure bank, introduced not by just one party, but by one of the most conservative members of the Senate and one of the most liberal.  The Senate also has a major highways bill, once again, introduced by people on opposite sides of the aisle.  These programs can get Americans back to work, while investing in the future of our country and improving the lives of every American, yet, in the House we’ve yet to see any serious attempt to spur job creation.

America is still a country full of possibility. American ingenuity and the American work ethic are second to none in the world.

Which is why it is very frustrating to see the type of debate that we’ve been having in Washington.

Rather than focus on job creation, far too many Republicans have been arguing that government is broken, and then set up a false crisis, like the recent debate on raising the debt ceiling to honor our nation’s obligations.  

The result?  Americans feel overwhelmingly that their government is broken as they watch the economy continue to struggle and millions are still unemployed, and rather than focusing on job creation, Congress created a crisis and exacerbated the jobs outlook. 

As Members of Congress our job is not to make the other party look bad. Our job is to put political rhetoric aside and come together with our colleagues on the floor of the House of Representatives to have substantive debates about how to tackle the challenges before us, and then vote to do what’s best for our country. That isn’t simply an idea or a rallying call, that is our job, and each of us needs to be willing to step up to the plate to do what we were sent here to do: govern and lead. Only then will we be able to get our economy back on track, honor our obligations to seniors, pay down our debt and reassure our constituents that they can still make it in America. 

That is what I plan to continue to do, and I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come up with solutions that will make it possible to restore the American dream.

I am proud to be an advocate for the people of South Florida, and my office is always open to you. You can reach us in Pembroke Pines at 954-437-3936, in Aventura at 305-936-5724 and in Washington, DC at 202-225-7931. I’m also available online at http://wassermanschultz.house.gov and Comcast-on-demand customers can stay up to date with my work for you on channel 890.