House Republicans rang the recess bell earlier this month and left behind a long list of unfinished business including a jobs agenda, middle class tax cuts, and the farm bill. Their unwillingness to work with President Obama and their failure to get things done for the American people is par for the course for the deeply unpopular, do-nothing GOP-led 112th Congress.
On the other hand, House Democrats during the 110th Congress worked in bipartisan way with President Bush and passed major bipartisan legislation on innovation, jobs, energy, education and other critical issues for the American people.
There is just no comparison.
USA Today: This Congress could be least productive since 1947
Congress is on pace to make history with the least productive legislative year in the post World War II era.
Just 61 bills have become law to date in 2012 out of 3,914 bills that have been introduced by lawmakers, or less than 2% of all proposed laws, according to a USA TODAY analysis of records since 1947 kept by the U.S. House Clerk’s office.
In 2011, after Republicans took control of the U.S. House, Congress passed just 90 bills into law. The only other year in which Congress failed to pass at least 125 laws was 1995.
These statistics make the 112th Congress, covering 2011-12, the least productive two-year gathering on Capitol Hill since the end of World War II. Not even the 80th Congress, which President Truman called the “do-nothing Congress” in 1948, passed as few laws as the current one, records show. [8/15]
The Fiscal Times: Do Nothing Congress Did Something: Named Buildings
… Of the 65 bills that cleared both chambers this year, 19 – or about 30 percent – attached someone’s name to a government office building. Over the course of the 112th Congress that started last year, that would be slightly more than one out of every five bills that Obama signed.
“They [the bills] stand out this year because little else got done,” said Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of the new book, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism. “And that, in turn, is a result of divided party government at a time of deeply polarized parties engaged in a permanent war. Only the public can change the situation.” [8/15]
And this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this headline:
CNN: Congress: Same hours, half the work
Washington Post’s WonkBlog: 14 reasons why this is the worst Congress ever
Billings Gazette: What’s worse than the Do Nothing Congress?
Tampa Bay Times: Congress takes a vacation from nation’s problems
CBS News: Schieffer: Do-nothing Congress begins five-week vacation with not much done
AP: Congress Takes 5 Weeks Off With Much Still Left To Do
How many headlines will it take before House Republicans change their ways and stop failing at their jobs?