The ‘Less Than Do Nothing’ 112th Congress

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The 80th Congress was nicknamed the "Do Nothing Congress" by President Harry Truman. Republicans controlled both chambers of the 80th Congress. The Republican Congress opposed many of the bills passed during the Franklin Roosevelt administration, and also opposed most of Truman's Fair Deal bills. Truman ran against the "Do Nothing Congress" in the election of 1948.

The current 112th Congress in which the Republicans control the House and, as a result of antiquated Senate rules effectively control the Senate through abuse of holds and filibusters, can properly be characterized the "Less Than Do Nothing Congress."

The Weeper of the House, John Boehner, adopted a rule for the House of two weeks of work, one week off. He needs to get his time on the golf links in. This Congress has taken more time off than any Congress in recent memory.

The bills that have been passed by this House are mostly symbolic bills to appease Tea-Publicans who want to repeal everything the previous Democratic Congress passed, and the entire 20th Century for that matter. These "feel good" bills to appease the radical Tea-Publican base will, of course, die in the Senate. This is no more effective than shouting in anger into the wind.

Almost no substantive legislation has been enacted by the 112th Congress (which is a good thing, given the radical agenda of the Tea-Publicans).

Despite this inauspicious record of under-achievement, the Weeper of the House comically tried out a new talking point this week: “We’re legislating. He’s (Obama) campaigning. It’s very disappointing.”

Seriously?

Jonathan Bernstein explains in John Boehner said that? Really? – The Plum Line:

Hard to believe that Boehner could say that one without bursting out laughing. The current House has done hardly any legislating at all. They could barely pass a bill to keep the government’s lights on back in the spring, and they almost send the nation into default in the summer. They missed the deadline to pass appropriations bills just last week, and there’s still no guarantee they’ll be able to do it after their new November extension.

And outside of that there’s … well, almost nothing. As Obama pointed out today, there is no Republican initiative that can meaningfully be called a jobs bill. They passed a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but did not keep their promise to develop a “replace” bill, or even begin the work on doing so. Same thing on financial regulation: they don’t like Dodd/Frank, but there is no Republican alternative.

To the extent that they do bother to develop bills and move them to the House floor, Republicans aren’t really legislating, because they have no intention of developing laws that can pass through the Senate and earn the president’s signature. Thus the health repeal, and thus their regulatory agenda this fall, little or none of which has any real chance of becoming law.

The key here is that real legislating requires compromise, especially during times of divided government. And House Republicans have no intention of compromising with either the Senate or with Barack Obama. They’ve said as much; they believe that compromise is per se a bad thing. And that means there won’t be any legislating, no matter how much the president might want it (and don’t forget he spent most of the summer trying, for better or worse, to strike a budgetary Grand Bargain). Even now, if Boehner really offered to deal on jobs, I don’t think anyone doubts that Obama would hop off the campaign trail and try to work something out. But there will be no legislating, because the House isn’t going to do it.

The "Less Than Do Nothing" 112th Congress is a solid wall of GOP obstructionism of anything that would be beneficial to the American people during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And they are only into the first year of their term. Next year is an election year, when they will work even less. Can America hang on to the next election to throw these bums out?