The Real Do-Nothing Congress
The 80th United States Congress was nicknamed the “Do Nothing Congress,” and rightfully so. They passed a total of 906 public bills while preceding Congresses passed closer to 1000 bills. The Do Nothing Congress passed ten percent fewer bills than other Congresses, but this article is not about the Congress of 1948. This piece is about the Congress of today. The 113th Congress is shaping up to be the least productive in the history of the United States. We are on track to pass just 251 bills, ten percent less than the previous Congress. Why is this so? There are few reasons this may be; Congress is gridlocked because of majorities, both parties don’t want the other to win, and both parties have extreme ideals.
The Republican Party controls the House of Representatives while the Democratic Party controls the Senate. If a bill were to be passed in the House, the senate would most likely vote it down. Unfortunately for the bill and us, it would never land on Obama’s desk. One part of our bicameral Congress would never vote in favor of the other. As long as our Congress is split, we won’t be passing 400 or more bills a year.
The second reason that the 113th Congress is the least productive in history is the fact that parties don't want the others to come away with a win. If passing a bill will make it seem as if the Republicans will come out with a win, the Democrats in the Senate will vote it down. Even if the bill will benefit liberals, they won’t vote to pass it. The two parties hate each other so much that they will no longer vote with the American people in mind. The two parties don’t want the American people to think that one party is winning. Our lawmakers’ only thought when casting their vote is: will passing this show a win for the other party?
Finally, both parties have extreme ideals with no hope for compromise. Republicans hold ideals that are drastically different from Democrats. A compromise looks impractical with both parties so far apart idealistically. Republicans think that all immigrants should be deported while Democrats think that immigrants should stay. There is no in between. Either they go or they stay. Who ever holds the majority in congress will decide what Immigration reform will pass, and because of the fact that Congress is split, the bill will never land on Obama’s desk.
I hope by now you can understand why our 113th Congress is the least productive in the history of this great country. Hopefully for us, the 114th Congress, which is Republican controlled, will start to turn things around.
