Posted on 07/04/2011 11:06:27 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Reporting from Washington — Freshman Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte is often asked what surprises her most about serving in the esteemed upper chamber of Congress. The earnest, 43-year-old conservative from New Hampshire has come up with an uncomplicated reply:
"I thought that we would vote on a lot more bills."
She most recently offered this answer from her Senate office at 3:45 on a Thursday afternoon. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had just announced that the Senate was done voting for the week. Senators wouldn't be needed until the following Tuesday.
In the lobby outside Ayotte's office, a television tuned to C-SPAN was showing an empty Senate chamber. In offices up and down the hallway, aides were booking flights home.
So it goes these days on Capitol Hill, a place of many headlines and much drama but not a whole lot of legislating.
The 112th Congress is on pace to be one of the least productive in recent memory — as measured by votes taken, bills made into laws, nominees approved. By most of those metrics, this crowd is underperforming even the "do-nothing Congress" of 1948, as Harry Truman dubbed it. The hot-temper era of Clinton impeachment in the 1990s saw more bills become law.
There is no shortage of explanations for the apparent lack of legislative success. Political observers see hyperpartisanship and perpetual campaigning that makes once-routine steps politically perilous.
Experts cite the rise of a brand of conservatism that aims for a government that governs least. Historians note that it's not unusual for Congress to take a breather after a period of hyperactivity like the one Washington completed last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
They worked so hard in the 110th and 111th to screw things up, They need a rest.
I say, let ‘em stay home ‘til Christmas.
Any more productivity out of Congress and the Chinese would own the fillings in my teeth.
“Government works best which governs least.”
In recent years history has shown that the less those miserable cretins in DC do, the better for the Country!
I’ll take “least productive” from the 122th congress after what the 111th congress did to us!
Why should they bother introducing legislation and voting on it when the president just does whatever he wants anyway? So far he has done everything in his power to obliterate the will of the people: the Disclose Act, Cap and Trade, the Dream Act—all voted down by our elected representatives and subsequently imposed by executive branch fiat. And now possibly the debt ceiling . . . I’m sure there are others.
With Obama in the White House and Dems leading the Senate, “unproductive” is about the best we can hope for.
I think the Texas legislature has it right, they only meet for a designated period in a year, I can’t remember if it’s once a year or every two years.
I’ll vote for that! No mans liberty and freedom are safe while congress is in session!
Did it even occur to this dimwit that the reversal in the house coupled with ultra-liberal Senate leadership = no agreement on any direction?
It is obvious why so little was done. The two houses are going to totally opposite directions. There is no need to even put bills in when it is obvious they will never pass the other chamber.
As if that’s a bad thing? :’) Thanks NormsRevenge.
Thank the little baby Jesus!
“That government is best which governs least”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks to the media on U.S. budget talks in Washington - Reuters
I agree, they make new laws that conflict with old ones and they never take one off the books.
We need to send in a team like they do on those hoarder programs and start cleaning out the federal register.
Good.
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