Vilified U.S. Congress Shows Few Signs of Ending Gridlock

[Purveyor]

By Laura Litvan - Jul 8, 2013
With few signs of ending the gridlock crushing public approval of Congress, U.S. lawmakers return this week to confront a budgetary deficit, a loophole-riddled tax code and a Senate revamping of immigration law given little chance in the House.

Their conflicts don’t stop there. Republicans in the Democratic-controlled Senate may block President Barack Obama’s nominees to lead the Environmental Protection Agency and Labor Department. The Republican-run House may try to revive farm legislation while seeking a piecemeal approach to immigration instead of the broad plan the Senate passed on June 27.

They will approach all this with a 15-percent public approval rating. Even passage of an immigration compromise wouldn’t be enough to uproot the view of a Congress that can’t address the nation’s top challenges, said Michael Dimock, director of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center in Washington.

“One success in a row is not a pattern,” Dimock said. “The real big-ticket items that people want to see action on haven’t happened.”

Congressional inaction has slowed Obama’s legislative agenda to a crawl in the first year of his second term, with the prospect of even fewer accomplishments next year before the 2014 midterm congressional elections. Still, lawmakers, not the president, are paying the price in public opinion, according to a Gallup Poll report last month.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-08/vilified-u-s-congress-shows-few-signs-of-ending-gridlock.html

[cyberswede]

1. Too bad their salaries aren't performance-based.