It's Tuesday, July 19 and Day 157 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell laid down his Supreme Court blockade: No meetings, no hearings, no votes on his replacement. It's also Day 120 since President Obama named Merrick Garland to be Scalia's replacement. What's the Senate doing today instead of considering the Supreme Court nominee?
Republican senators are probably trying to come up with justifications for their existence. Or possibly plotting a coup against Mitch McConnell. That's because the Heritage Foundation is attacking McConnell for having accomplished nothing.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recently took to the Senate floor to boast that the institution was back to work.
His proof: A Washington Times report noting that the Senate has so far this year approved 73 bills that became law, compared to only 27 during the same period last year, and 53 in 2014 when the Democrats were in control.
Numerically, he may have a point. However, it’s a small one.
Historically speaking, 2015 was a low water mark for Senate activity. When viewed over a longer period of time, the Senate is currently on track to pass the least number of new laws in modern history. Absent a post-election burst of productivity in a lame duck session later this year, the 114th Congress will go down as one of the most unproductive ever.
What they're really pissed at is that the bills passed by the Senate are rinky-dink things, that McConnell is focusing on the quantity rather than the content. Pretty much everyone is going to agree with that, but what does Heritage want? They want the Senate to be like the House and pass sweeping attacks on President Obama that won't ever make it into law: "Adopting the majority leader’s narrow measure of productivity effectively equates a Congress that nationalizes health care and passes amnesty with one that repeals Obamacare and secures the border."
Because that's productive.
The judicial blockade? They're entirely down with that, and have encouraged it, in fact. But here's the problem for all those Republican senators running for re-election: Their base is getting restless because they're not getting all those things they promised—like Obamacare repeal—done. The rest of the voters are pissed because they're not doing the critical things—like confirming Supreme Court justices. Thanks, Majority Leader McConnell.
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