"Ideology Trumps Accomplishment as 112th Congress Pursues Futile Bills"

[TomCADem]

The press often pushes the talking point that if the economy does not improve, President Obama's chances diminish. Conversely, a declining economy is often trumpeted as a reason why Republicans will consolidate and expand their control of Congress! You have to just love the blatant double standard and hypocrisy of the corporate media, which blinds people to the fact that 112th Congress is the worst ever. What President could be successful when faced with a Congress filled with Republicans who firmly believe that the worst things get, the better their electoral chances look.

http://www.tinadupuy.com/articles/the-atlantic-ideology-trumps-accomplishment-as-112th-congress-pursues-futile-bills/

The debilitating debt ceiling debate is par for the course — instead of compromising, House Republicans keep pushing bills they know can’t become law

House Republicans have been known to sneer at government red tape. Before becoming speaker of the House, Ohio’s John Boehner dismissed Obama’s health-care overhaul bill as “1,990 pages of bureaucracy.” But now that the GOP holds the majority in the House and therefore sets the schedule, House Republicans have been embracing a lot of pointless busy work and ideological signal-sending.

One quarter into the 112th Congress’s two-year term, only 14 pieces of legislation originating in the House have become laws (12 bills and two house joint resolutions). Fourteen. Compare that with the House in the 111th, which claimed 254 laws (plus 11 house joint resolutions) over two years. The 110th had 308 (plus 10 house joint resolutions). Even the often-derided do-nothing 109th Congress’s House controlled by the GOP passed 316 (with 16 house joint resolutions).

If the current House continues with this trend it will have produced a mere 48 laws by the end of the chamber’s full term.

Quick math: The last three Houses have by this time in their tenure produced an average of 76 laws each.

But when House Republicans are actually in session, it’s not exactly like they’re doing nothing. They’ve made a point of passing bills that “send a message.” Over and over, they’ve brought legislation to the floor that was doomed to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Why? To put taxpayer money where Republican congresspersons’ mouths (and votes) are. Yes, the House Republicans of 112th Congress are having a love affair with the symbolic vote.