Janet Hook reports (ironically, in the Wall Street Journal) that the reason no one is legislating anything big in Congress anymore is because the Republican Party won’t allow it. Their desire to repeal legislation, not create it, has been voiced even by the Speaker of the House. Never mind that they aren’t repealing anything, either.
Even if you won’t read this information on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, it’s comforting to see it stated so plainly in the news pages. Even when the Republicans try to legislate, it doesn’t go well. Jonathan Cohn has a laugh at the result of their health care bill, which the Congressional Budget Office scored to hilarious effect. CBO estimated that their reforms would kick a million people off their insurance, leave half of them with no coverage whatsoever, and add $73 billion to the deficit. Try running on that clusterfuck.
Meanwhile, Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp is basically being told to take a hike by his colleagues even before he can unveil his grand plan to reform our tax system. The Obama administration partly preempted Camp by sending his partner in crime, Max Baucus, to China to serve as our ambassador. Despite that, Camp wants to press on but Mitch McConnell just told him to drop dead.
Pretty soon, no one outside the leadership will be left in Congress who remembers how to actually mark up a bill in a way that it can actually pass.
