Not a do-nothing Congress

Since House Democrats passed healthcare reform a couple  of months ago,
the lower chamber has generally adopted a Tuesday-through-Thursday
schedule.

And for the most part, the bills that have hit the House floor have been non-controversial. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has also made it clear that the Senate must move first on contentious legislation before the House acts.

{mosads}This strategy is no accident; politically vulnerable Democrats had pleaded for a breather after the tumultuous debates on health reform and climate change.

Not surprisingly, Republicans have chided Democrats for hitting the brakes over the last several weeks. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) went so far as to suggest that the 111th Congress could become known as a do-nothing Congress.

We don’t blame Sessions for making that charge. Sessions is the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and when you head a campaign committee, it’s your job to fire partisan shots at every turn.

But that line of attack won’t work. Not this year.

The 111th Congress has passed a massive stimulus measure and a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s healthcare system, and is on the cusp of enacting a big financial regulatory reform bill. These policies can be mocked as a government takeover, or denounced as a step toward socialism, or some other critique. That’s all fair game and could resonate with voters this fall.

But whatever else you may be able plausibly to allege against the 111th, you cannot call it a do-nothing Congress.

In 1948, President Harry Truman repeatedly referred to the GOP-controlled Congress as a do-nothing Congress. It served him and congressional Democrats well, as Truman was reelected and Democrats seized control of the legislative branch.

In 1994, Republicans won control of Congress by employing the “do-nothing Congress” line. While President Bill Clinton did move many bills through the Congress at that time, his biggest goal, healthcare reform, didn’t even get through the House.

Twelve years later, President George W. Bush’s effort to reform Social Security crashed soon after takeoff. Democrats won control of Congress, in part because they portrayed Republicans as running a do-nothing Congress.

There are some independent campaign analysts who believe that the GOP has a good chance to win the House this year and an outside chance of grabbing control of the Senate.

The do-nothing label has certainly worked in the past. Yet President Barack Obama’s No. 1 goal of healthcare reform has been achieved, rendering at least that barb ineffective in 2010.