RightChange: Which Chamber Had The Most Futile Year Ever

The full House has returned to Washington as Congress marks the end of its least-productive year in modern history.  It passed 80 bills, fewer than during any other session since year-end records began being kept in 1947.   The real question is whether or not the blame is equally shared.

From the Washington Times:

“An analysis by The Washington Times of the scope of such activities as time spent in debate, number of conference reports produced and votes taken on the House and Senate floors found that Congress set a record for legislative futility by accomplishing less in 2011 than any other year in history.

The Senate’s record was weakest by a huge margin, according to the futility index, and the House had its 10th-worst session on record.

Of the bills the 112th Congress did pass, the majority were housekeeping measures, such as naming post office buildings or extending existing laws. Sometimes, it was too difficult for the two chambers to hammer out agreements. More often, the Senate failed to reach agreement within the chamber.

That left much of the machinery of the federal government on autopilot, with the exception of spending, where monumental clashes dominated the legislative session.”

As the analysis shows, the Senate Democrat’s record was the weakest by a huge margin.  The House passed 27 bipartisan jobs bills this legislative year.  If you want to read more about them, go here.  They also passed a responsible budget back in April that reduced our deficit by trillions of dollars over a decade.  One of the reasons Congress was so futile is because the Senate refused to pass the House jobs bills, much less even take them up for a vote.

Candidate Obama and the Democrats have blamed the inefficiency of Washington on Republicans as if Republicans have total control right now.  Republicans have controlled one chamber of one branch of government for one year.  The Democrats have been running the show since January 3^rd, 2007.  House Republicans do not have the luxury of bypassing the Constitution to get things done like Obama does.  You can thank the party that has had the majority since 2007 for the futility.

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