Did John Bohner give us a Do-Nothing Congress?
Barring a burst of productivity in the lame-duck session in November and December, the 112th Congress is set to enter the Congressional record books as the least productive body in the post-World War II era. It had passed a mere 173 public laws as of last month. That was well below the 906 enacted from January 1947 through December 1948 by the body President Harry S. Truman referred to as the “do-nothing” Congress, and far fewer than many prior Congresses have passed in a single session.
So far, Boehner’s Congress has passed 733 fewer laws than the Do-Nothing Congress of 1947-48. The least productive Congress in history passed more than five times as many bills as Boehner’s Congress. Try to wrap your mind around that.
Harry Truman successfully won reelection by branding a Congress as “Do-Nothing” that was 81% more productive than John Boehner’s Congress. Forget the part about “barring a burst of productivity,” Boehner did less in two years than almost any Congress has done in one year. He and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have ground our government to a halt during a time of record unemployment, and they expect the American people to respond by rewarding them and electing a total dick like Mitt Romney to take the president’s place.
That isn’t going to happen. But the House and Senate Republicans deserve a beating. I hope people realize just how historically awful they have been.
