Congress Shirks Productivity As GOP Rages Against Obamacare
CATHERINE THOMPSON – DECEMBER 3, 2013, 8:37 AM EST
Furor against Obamacare continues to rage in Congress at the expense of routine legislation.
The New York Times reported Monday that last-minute legislative deals on a budget and other bills could be thwarted as "many Republicans believe they are getting such good traction from their attacks on President Obama’s stumbling health care law that they feel less compelled to produce results."
The current 113th Congress has passed 55 laws to date, according to the Times -- that's seven fewer than the preceding 112th Congress, considered the least productive Congress ever. “I ran on a government that did less,” Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI) told the Times. “I felt the government was overreaching, and the citizens that sent me didn’t want me to be overaggressive in writing new laws. The Affordable Care Act launch is actually demonstrating the ineptitude of the federal government in handling these big programs.”
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) last month even blamed Obamacare for GOP leaders' decision not to take up immigration reform before the end of the year. But there is hope: Senate Budget Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) are said to be inching closer to a budget agreement.
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