The Do Nothing Congress

Dana Millbank, writing for the Washington Post, says that to call the current 112th Congress the "do-nothing Congress" would be an insult to the 1947-48 Congress immortalized by Harry Truman as "the Do-Nothing Congress."

That 1947-48 crowd, which so enraged Truman, passed 908 laws.    By comparison, the 112th to date has passed 106 laws.   Of course, they still have 34 weeks to go -- but they plan to be on vacation (euphemistically referred to as 'doing constituent work' back home and really meaning campaigning for re-election) for 17 of those weeks.

Given the recalcitrant partisanship of the current Congress -- and in the midst of an election campaign to boot -- the chance of much getting done in those other 17 weeks seems dim, at best.

Does anyone doubt why it has been so unproductive -- and who is responsible?

All you need do is remember that a group of Republican leaders met the day of Obama's inauguration to plot their strategy for defeating him -- not just defeating him for re-election but defeating his every effort to get anything done.

The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said publicly that their main goal was to make Obama a one-term president.   That doesn't even address the extremism and the obduracy of the Tea Party dominated House.

The "Do Nothing Congress" was a winning campaign slogan for Truman.   It should work for Obama.

Ralph