Just like that, Congress took a walk this week. The House adjourned on Friday and the Senate took off this morning. They apparently needed a vacation. You know, since they’ve been working so hard for all of two weeks. Yep, just two weeks after they came back from a five-week summer vacation, they’ve taken another vacation (oops, I meant “recess”) – this one until mid-November. It seems that months of doing absolutely nothing makes a legislator tired.
Or maybe, if they were honest, they’d admit that they just don’t want to do anything before the election.
But let’s think about all they got accomplished before they went on vacation.
Give me a minute.
Give me another minute.
Nope, can’t think of anything.
Those expiring tax cuts? Nothing.
The farm bill? Nada.
Jobs act? Still sitting.
Deficit management? Er, no.
AMT (alternative minimum tax) reform? Crickets.
To be clear, Congress plans to do more of what’s it’s been doing (nothing) for the next two months. It’s a far cry from 2000 when the 106th Congress took a mere nine-day break around the election and it marks one of the earliest recessions for Congress in more than fifty years. Good thing there’s nothing that needs attention just now, huh?