The phrase “do-nothing Congress” is used so often that one wonders if it has always applied and always will. But as the 109th Congress prepares to adjourn this weekend, Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein offer some depressing context in a Los Angeles Times commentary. The 11 appropriations bills are unfinished. More than 25 of the year’s fewer than 100 days in session have seen no votes scheduled before 6:30 p.m., and the typical congressional workweek now lasts from Tuesday evening through noon Thursday. Of greater concern to the authors, though, is how Congress increasingly pushes through “sloppy and ill-considered legislation” to score political points. “The framers wanted Congress to move slowly and deliberately,” they write. “But today, it is common to spring on the House and Senate a 1,000-page bill that has not been through any vetting process. With little notice and no time for anyone to read the bill, much less absorb or analyze it, with no amendments allowed, the leadership demands a party-line, up-or-down vote. This is a formula for poor oversight and worse law.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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23 Comments
You think it’s bad now! Wait until the Democrats get back in power. Nothing going to get done.
They are getting stuff done, from OKing torture to approving spying on AMERICANS through warrantless wiretapping, to handing the ownership of everything in this country to religious nuts…they’re eroding anything this nation stands for.
“The framers wanted Congress to move slowly and deliberately,” So, am I wrong to assume that the Congress was meant to be an ever fluid coalition of multiple parties instead of the constantly warring two-party parliamentary-like system currently in fashion? Maybe it is time to revisit the system on how Reps and Sens are elected.
It’s funny to listen to Joe, if it was 1970 I would be considered a moderate Republican, socially liberal fiscally conservative.
Too Me this is the Republican Party:
http://www.nicedoggie.net/2006/
Good joke Joe. The Democrats ran a much more effective and efficient Congress. It is utterly hilarious to see you blame Democrats when the Republicans have had a stranglehold for so long.
What can one say? The Joe Williams fantasy world sails proudly on, untroubled by pesky facts or precedent.
I think it is time we pay Congress according to their work – you know like the average factory worker gets paid? Piece work. Maybe then they will get off their fat and sassy butts and actually get some work accomplished.
But I’m sure the Republicans and Democrats wouldn’t like that idea because then they would have to relate to the average American and that will never do.
The problem has been that the Republicans have had total control for too long. That is why the founding fathers had the foresight to set up a checks and balance system of government.
Republicans love to blame everything on the Democrats but I think we all know that when it comes down to it – neither party will ever completely do the American public any favors. It is all about the power, greed and ego.
I think with the ineffective bunch of repuke morons in power, we would be more than happy to have a do-nothing congress. The less they do, the less the democrats will have to undo whenever they shift the balance.
Poltical mom beat me to it. . .if your standard is responsible governance, well, no, they haven’t been doing any of that (and they can’t blame the roll-over-and-take-it-nice Democrats for it, either).
But they’ve spent a great deal of time rewriting laws to benefit the Executive Branch, corporations, the wealthy etc. Silly me, but I wasn’t aware that bankruptcy was such a compelling problem that we needed to make it harder to do. Maybe all those years hiding in caves forced bin Laden into Chapter 7.
There was a time in this country when the Democratic party was worth respecting. They will automatically have my vote this time around, but if they have any chance of KEEPING power, they had better start showing some nerve.
Whatever problems the current regime has, lack of nerve is not one of them. The Dem party under Howard Dean is on the right track, but they’re dragging the corporate-controlled DLC along kicking and screaming. So, in that regard, this election is crucial for both the country AND the future of the Democratic party, if it has one.
P.S. Joe, with 2 more years of Shrub, it’s possible that a Dem congress will achieve nothing. So what? Choosing between a do-nothing Congress that supports monarchy, and a do-nothing Congress that might keep a power-mad ruler in check, the choice is obvious.
And, the by the way, John Paul Stevens is in his 80s. If Shrub gets another Supreme Court nominee, the last thing we need is a “yup boss” Senate. . .
The best thing to do to George W. is to vote in Democrats this fall. That way his hands will be tied. Then we will see exactly if he is a uniter and not the divider.
As a wee lad growing up in South Dakota, I learned there is an “Anti-hog-housing” amendment in that state. Seems once upon a time the state budget got voted down, so some clever congressdroid took a bill authorizing construction of a swine lab at SDSU, and inserted the entire budget in the middle of the bill.
So they passed a law saying every bill has to be about one thing and one thing only. None of this “Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act” crap in SD, no sir.
None of that “line item veto” idiocy, either. If every bill is forced to have a single line item, there’s no _need_ for a line item veto.
And the best thing of all is it would slow the US congress _even_more_ Yaaay!
Alden,
That’s how the U.S. Congress should be run. Nothing tacked on. The pork is killing us. The sad thing is, most people never know about what’s being added, except those adding it and (some of) those voting on it.
Are we surprised that bills aren’t read before voting begins? Just another one of Michael Moore’s lies in F911, I guess.
Unfortunately, the pork is only pork when it is someone else’s pork. You know how that goes – a bridge that goes no where in Alaska.
Speaking of pork … where are all those tanker jobs?
Don’t you watch tv Ben? Todd Tiarht is patting himself on the back for bringing those jobs to Kansas. He actually thinks the voters are going to believe it.
Yea I saw that. Hopefully people will see through him this time.
By the way, didn’t he advocate term limits?
Toddy boy advocated term limits for the Democrats – that was in the fine print in his copy of Contract for America.
America needs to aim higher when filling the seats of the next congress. Throw the Bums out!
I see the manly men over at http://www.nicedoggie.net/2006/ changed their address didn’t want to represent republicans? Doing a little bit of the cut and run.
Who says posting on a blog can’t make difference.Shining a light on some of the darkness in the world is a good thing.
Maybe we need a scruffy’s law for terrorist suspects.What ever happened to the “We don’t torture” line, and the one about the troops at Abu Graib certainly couldn’t have been following oredrs. It will be very confusing to the troops, just how much torturing, is too much? Watch the next captured american be tortured before being killed.
The election was about more than Iraq:
*Corrupt war profiteering*Bill of Rights*EPA destruction*Lies about Social Security*Lies about WMD’s*Screwing the middle class/NEW jobs for the middle class after sending previous jobs abroad*PNAC*James Baker III and the Carlyle Group*War for Oil*Let’s cut our losses and Bring the troops home*Now that Rummy is out it’s time for Bush,Cheney and Rice to resign
P.S. Now to set goals that the PEOPLE would like to see achieved
* alternative energy/energy efficient transportation* healthcare for all* Bring the EPA back to at least square one* Fund public schools,VoTech and higher education* Bring the troops home* Review the executive powers of the president* Cut funding for spying on americans* Patriot Act* Scrap No Child Left Behind and present a more practical approach*Minimum wage for cost of living in the present decade.*Start finding global warming solutions