For the 112th Congress, Dave Weigel writes, Republicans plan to do absolutely nothing:
The new Republicans promised much less. In December, Cantor announced that every two weeks of House business would be followed by a weeklong recess. "We had freshmen who said we should be here less, a lot less than we have been for the past two years," said Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, who helped put together the schedule. In his first speech on becoming speaker, John Boehner promised that the next Congress would move slowly. "We will dispense with the conventional wisdom that bigger bills are always better," he said, "that fast legislating is good legislating." [...]
They are taking an approach to legislating completely antithetical to what President Obama proposed in his State of the Union speech. They don't want Congress to "do big things." Government, in general, should not do big things.
Americans have a perennial distaste for Congress, and the passage of major legislation can hurt congressional approval more than it helps. In other words, Americans may hate the idea of Washington gridlock, but they also don't actually like the idea of congressional action. As political scientist Josh Huder put it, "Disapproval is built into the institution’s DNA."
Politically, this isn't a bad idea. But it does highlight the emptiness that exists at the heart of the contemporary GOP. Outside of tax cuts, health-care repeal, and meaningless spending cuts, there is no Republican agenda. Republicans have no program for climate climate change or an alternative for health-care reform. They don't want spending for infrastructure or education and have little concern for high unemployment. I hate on Darrell Issa, but at least he wants to do something with his power. If the rest of his party exists for something other than winning elections and hating liberals, I'd like to see it.
-- Jamelle Bouie
