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Work left undone, Congress breaks

Fighting a "do-nothing'' label, Republicans and Democrats take turns blaming the other party for the lack of accomplishments.

By TIMES WIRES
Published August 5, 2006

WASHINGTON - Returning home for a month of summer campaigning, congressional Republicans and Democrats are blaming each other for what some are calling the biggest "do-nothing" Congress since President Harry Truman hung that tag on lawmakers in 1948.

To be sure, there were some accomplishments. Congress overhauled pension protection for American workers, confirmed two Supreme Court justices, updated statutes governing bankruptcy and class-action lawsuits, and opened a big swath of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling.

But it's the unfinished business that stands out: legislative standoffs over immigration policy and a minimum-wage hike. No solutions for the fiscal crunch looming over Social Security and Medicare. No tightening of rules on lobbying despite a flurry of scandals. No decision on how much power a wartime president should have to spy on citizens or to try detainees in the war on terrorism.

And then, the bipartisan passage of legislation to expand embryonic stem-cell research drew President Bush's first veto.

Democrats say the blame falls on Republicans, because they control both houses of Congress.

Republicans, however, say little got done because of the Democrats' constant obstruction.

"When they (Republicans) get up and read their litany, it's things that only a few narrow special interests care about, like a bankruptcy bill or class-action reform," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "Anything major that affects average Americans and makes their lives better, they haven't been able to get done, and I think people know that."

But a look at the record easily disproves such criticism, said Senate Budget Committee chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

"To the extent major issues have not moved, it's primarily because they've been filibustered by the Democrats," Gregg said. "It's sort of like somebody who killed their parents going to the court claiming that they should get some sort of special dispensation because they're orphans."

A Republican plan to increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 was blocked this week in the Senate by a Democratic filibuster, because it was attached to a tax break for heirs of multimillion-dollar estates.

Brian Nick, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Senate Democrats outsmarted themselves by blocking the bill to cut estate taxes - a longtime GOP goal - and raise the minimum wage, a perennial Democratic priority. They can hardly call for bipartisan cooperation, or denounce a "do-nothing Congress," after rejecting a classic compromise, he said.

GOP candidates will ask voters to decide which "is the better party to ensure that Americans are protected from terrorists in a post-9/11 society," Nick said.

Regardless, some analysts say the criticism may be little more than a side issue in an election driven by deeper fears about the war in Iraq and the price of gas. Congress could do little to control those events.

"It's not about accomplishment," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. "It's about Iraq. Those events are beyond our control."

Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning research center, agrees: "Basically, I don't think anything Congress does from now out will have any material impact on the elections."

"What's driving voters is the war in Iraq, high energy and health-care prices, and overwhelming pessimism by Americans," he said. "I have believed for many months this is one of those once-a-decade national tide elections in which we get a strong referendum on the party in power."

[Last modified August 5, 2006, 01:40:37]