It Is Congress That Has Failed Us

To The Editor:

Unwilling to steer the country away from the fiscal cliff we face Jan. 1, 2013, and unable to pass what has previously been routine legislation, members of the 112th Congress this week are doing what they do best, and that’s nothing.

Well, that’s not quite fair. They’re technically in recess, having left Washington to campaign for the next six weeks.

Last week The New York Times reported this Congress will go down “as the least productive body in a generation,” passing fewer than 200 bills into law. That’s even worse than the tally of 906 bills passed which earned the body that former President Harry Truman called the “do-nothing Congress” in the 1940s.

The 112th Congress was unable even to pass several necessary measures that previously had become law with little conflict. They have punted on the farm bill, drought assistance, revamping the Postal Service, and a bill that protects victims of domestic violence which had been extended without incident twice before.

And they did not deal with the illegal immigration problem among other major issues facing our nation.

And now we must wait six weeks for voters to send Washington a message about the course that should be taken to moving forward.

It is the voters who can change the inaction of Congress in Washington.

More than the president, it is the Congress that has failed us.