This week in Washington, as I continued my battle against spending, the defi- cit, and debt, the difference between policies of the two parties was revealed in stark terms.

On the floor of the House, we debated extending unemployment benefits. As I listened carefully to the debate, I didn’t hear anybody say we shouldn’t be extending unemployment benefits.

What I heard was that one side wanted to borrow 43 cents on the dollar, mainly from the Chinese, to pay for them — and many less worthy objectives — and send the bill to our children and grandchildren.

Those were my friends on the Democratic side of the aisle.

What my conservative colleagues and I said was that maybe we could find funds in the $1.2 trillion of stimulus money or the unspent TARP funds, so we would not add to the largest debt in America’s history.

Ultimately, the people in America don’t want more unemployment checks; they want more paychecks. Unfortunately, it is the policies of this president and the policies of this Congress, such as the federal takeover of health-care, the permanent Wall Street bailout, the threatened cap and tax on energy bill, and the massive debt that goes along with them, that are holding back job creation.

It doesn’t have to be that way. I serve on the National Fiscal Responsibility Commission and one of my fellow commissioners, a Democrat and the former chief of staff to President Clinton, recently said our debt is a cancer that can destroy us from within.

So why do the Democrats in Congress refuse to pay for the extension of unemployment insurance or any other new spending? Until the majority in Congress is willing to make the hard choices necessary to put our nation’s fiscal house in order, I’m afraid the spending, deficit, debt and unemployment will continue.