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According to the Huffington Post, the current 112th Congress will go down as the most unproductive session since the 1940s. Not only that, but the 112th Congress will capture the dubious distinction by a very wide margin. The Huffington Post reported the 104th Congress (1995-1996) holds the record for fewest bills to become law over a two year period at 333. For comparison, with a week to go in the 112th Congress, just 219 bills have become law. That means more than 100 would have to make it to the presidents desk in less than a week to keep the current Congress from taking the title of Do-Nothing Congress.
The problems in Congress are being vividly displayed during the fiscal cliff negotiations. House Republicans have vowed to fight any tax increase, regardless of the depth of spending cuts going along with them. In addition, under Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), nearly every piece of legislation that makes it to the presidents desk has to win a supermajority of 60 votes because nearly every bill is filibustered or simply has a hold put on it at some point in the Senate process.
Even something as simple as emergency aid for the victims of superstorm Sandy has seen delays due to partisanship fights. Senate Republicans have sought to decrease the amount of financial support saying the House wont agree to the Democratic proposals. The partisanship in both the House of Representatives and the Senate has become so ridiculous that Senator McConnell was the first person in history to ever filibuster his own bill earlier in December because Democrats were going to support his plan to give the president more power over the debt ceiling.
The 113th Congress will begin meeting January 3, 2013 and be in power through January 2, 2015. The new makeup of Congress will give Democrats 55 votes in the Senate and roughly 200 in the House of Representatives. Republicans will control 45 votes in the Senate and control the House majority with 233 votes. However, in the House, Republicans can lose just 16 votes on any bill to pass it if all Democrats vote in unison for or against a bill.
Report: Current Congress Most Unproductive In History « CBS Miami
Dogma and insistence on one point of view has NO PLACE is a true Democracy. The Republicans in Congress are being held hostage by a little man who had them sign a No Tax increase statement.
But the future of the petition proposing to cut the pay of members of Congress to $75,000 a year for three years to cut the national deficit is uncertain, even if it has received 31,579 signatures since it was created on Christmas Day and as of the time this story was posted.
Two days after Christmas, President Barack Obama signed an executive order ending the pay freeze on federal workers, including representatives in the House and senators, effective Jan. 1, 2013 the same day the U.S. government technically fell over the so-called fiscal cliff because Congress could not reach a legislative solution. Report all Senators and members of Congress who do not support this [petition] so voters will know who supports the American people for re-election purposes, the petition says.
The governments responses to petitions are also posted, but on Friday none had been posted regarding the pay cut for Congress. My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government, Obama is quoted as saying on the petition website.
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