The story that continues to be largely ignored by the corporate media is the historical dimensions of Congressional inaction, which is largely due to Republican refusal to compromise or make serious efforts at addressing unemployment. Instead, most congressional Republicans feel relatively safe that they can make the economy worse, and the American people will simply blame the Democrats. By bottling up any legislative in the House, and filibustering legislation in the Senate, they hope people will say, Hey, Democrats hold the Senate and the Presidency, why can't they change things, which ignores the necessity of the House!
So, here is the rare article that gets it. The current 112th Congress is among the worst in history. And, its the Republicans fault.
http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2011/10/the-less-than-do-nothing-112th-congress.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BlogForArizona+%28Blog+For+Arizona%29
The 80th Congress was nicknamed the "Do Nothing Congress" by President Harry Truman. Republicans controlled both chambers of the 80th Congress. The Republican Congress opposed many of the bills passed during the Franklin Roosevelt administration, and also opposed most of Truman's Fair Deal bills. Truman ran against the "Do Nothing Congress" in the election of 1948.
The current 112th Congress in which the Republicans control the House and, as a result of antiquated Senate rules effectively control the Senate through abuse of holds and filibusters, can properly be characterized the "Less Than Do Nothing Congress."
The Weeper of the House, John Boehner, adopted a rule for the House of two weeks of work, one week off. He needs to get his time on the golf links in. This Congress has taken more time off than any Congress in recent memory.
The bills that have been passed by this House are mostly symbolic bills to appease Tea-Publicans who want to repeal everything the previous Democratic Congress passed, and the entire 20th Century for that matter. These "feel good" bills to appease the radical Tea-Publican base will, of course, die in the Senate. This is no more effective than shouting in anger into the wind.
Almost no substantive legislation has been enacted by the 112th Congress (which is a good thing, given the radical agenda of the Tea-Publicans).
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