Even by recent standards, the Republican-run 109th Congress set some sort of dubious record for inaction. Remember that, now that they’re campaigning.
The GOP-run Congress that Harry S Truman blasted as “do-nothing” back in 1948 was productive by comparison. That 1947-48 Congress passed more than 1,000 pieces of legislation, including some that were positive, such as the Marshall Plan.
Of course, that “Do-Nothing Congress” gave us the anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act.
Which brings up a key point about this GOP-run Congress, whose legislative output is approximately one-third of that one: Maybe, as far as workers are concerned, no action is better than action.
Because when this “Do-Nothing Congress” actually bestirs itself to do something, it usually does the wrong thing. Consider some of the few measures that either the House or the Senate, and occasionally both, approved in the last year and a half:
* The law implementing the job-losing Central American Free Trade Agreement. Congress also passed implementing legislation for the free trade agreement with Oman, a nation that has no labor protection laws whatsoever. The Senate vote on Oman was 63-31. Neither the Omani pact nor CAFTA have enforceable labor rights provisions.
* Extension of the USA Patriot Act, which trashes the Bill of Rights.
* The punitive, vindictive and--let’s call it what it is--racist House version of the immigration bill. Not only would it turn immigrants and Hispanics into felons, but it would also turn union organizers, teachers, religious workers and others who help immigrants into criminals, too. Can you imagine being thrown in jail for giving an immigrant a drink of water?
* The Senate version of the immigrant rights legislation is better, but not by much. It sets up a path to “green cards”--permanent residence--for some, but not all, of the 11 million-12 million undocumented workers in the U.S.
The path is long and tortuous, taking years and involving thousands of dollars in fines imposed upon some of the poorest, most-exploited workers in the nation. It is hard to imagine how many of the undocumented would actually try to take walk that path. But at least the Senate bill brings undocumented workers under U.S. labor laws.
* Blind obedience to GOP President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq. The Republicans have been marching in lockstep with the White House, least until the campaign began. The Democrats are scared of their own shadows. They fail to criticize the decision to go to war--which many voted for--and the corruption, fraud and mismanagement of it by Bush, his corporate cronies and his Right Wing ideologues.
* A Congress that is a cesspool of scandal, and not just in the obvious cases of Reps. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), Randy Cunningham (R-Calif.) and William Jefferson (D-La.), all in jail or headed for it. The whole campaign contribution system is a scam featuring rampant influence-peddling. It gives the plutocrats and their allies, who have money, access and clout. And it gives the back of its hand to workers and their families. Congress’ response to being for sale? Minor changes in some small ethics rules.
Just remember all this when you go to the polls to vote on November 7.
