(Update) The ‘less-than-do-nothing’ Tea-Publican 112th Congress: Worst. Congress. Ever.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In this ongoing series, The 'less-than-do-nothing' Tea-Publican 112th Congress: Worst. Congress. Ever., here is the latest from Steve Benen. Making the 'Do-Nothing Congress' look great by comparison:

In his second term, President Harry Truman condemned the snail's pace
at which lawmakers actually got some work done, labeling it a
"Do-Nothing" Congress. After all, the 80th Congress (1947-1948) only
passed 906 bills over its two-year period.

The current Congress, by comparison, has passed just 196 bills, easily
the lowest total since the U.S. House Clerk's office started keeping
track. Consider the progress in chart form, which should drive home just
how unproductive the 112th Congress (2011-2012) really is.

In fairness, I should note that the current Congress still has another month to go, and I suppose it's possible
that there will be a flurry of progress and constructive policymaking.
But given partisan differences and a shrinking calendar, I'm pretty
comfortable with the notion that this will be the least productive of
any modern Congress by a large margin.

This is not, by the way, the inevitable result of divided government
(one party controlling the House; the other party controlling the
Senate).

It is the result of the radicalization of the GOP by ideological extremists. As political scientists Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein described earlier this year,
Let's just say it: The Republicans are the problem – Washington Post.