So for a long time now we have been hearing stories about how the 112th congress (the one that went from 2010-2012) was the least productive in history, and now we are hearing the same things about the current 113th Congress.
Well at least one member of both of those congresses has had enough, and he's not going to take it anymore.
That man is John Boehner, Speaker of the House for the 112th and 113th congress.
Well, now what does Speaker Boehner say to reports the 112th congress was the least productive ever?
"That's just total nonsense, Now listen, we made clear when we took over, that we weren't going to be doing commemorative legislation on the floor. A lot of changes. In addition to that, most Americans think we have too many laws. And what they want us to do is repeal more of those. So I reject the premise to the question."
Now look I do actually want to be fair here, the first sentence is absolutely true. John Boehner did pledge not to bring up so much commemorative legislation and kept that promise. For example traditionally 64 pieces of legislation are passed every March, one commemorating each and every team that made it into March Madness that year. That didnt happen under the 112th congress.
So that's 128 less pieces of legislation right there.
And the 112th congress only passed 238 bills. Compared to say 383 by the 111th, or 460 by the 110th.
And if we just add the March Madness numbers back to the total count, the 112th would have passed 366 bills. Still the least productive congress ever, but really not by much especially compared to its direct predecessors
And I'll be honest, I have no idea how much other commemorative legislation the Congress usually passes. So if Boehner had stopped right there, theirs a very good chance he would have had a good and perfectly acceptable excuse. But he didnt, and because he didnt he ran into a problem.
And its a problem he cant seem to get away from.
Take his answer as to why the Congress has only passed 15 bills this entire year so far, which he gave on Face the Nation this morning.
First he said that Congress "should not be judged by how many new laws we create." pointing out that in his opinion the US already has "more laws than the administration could ever enforce." therefore Boehner believes that "ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal."
This the second time in a row John Boehner has mentioned that what the "American people want" or what "Congress should be judged on" is repealing laws.
And that right there is his on-going problem.
It's not that he's wrong, that's the problem. I'll even grant the premise for the rest of this blog that yes the only thing the American people want is to have laws repealed.
The problem is a mechanical one. You know how you repeal a law?
It's not a hard process, you just pass a bill repealing the previous bill.
So basically its a subcategory of passing bills.
And believe me Speaker Boehner knows this. After all his House is currently working on the 38th piece of legislation they are trying to pass that would repeal Obamacare.
So even repealing laws requires passing bills.
Now I admit I dont have the time to look up all 238 bills the 112th Congress passed, but I know we didnt repeal 238 laws. But I do have plenty of time to look up the 15 bills this Congress has passed. 0 of them repeal a law.
Which means if we use Speaker Boehners own criteria, he keeps answering questions about why he (and the rest of Congress) suck at their jobs and he's excuse it "no, please your giving us too much credit....we actually suck way way way more then you think we suck."
Points for honesty, but its still a horrible excuse and a horrible answer.....maybe its time to try something different?
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