Many, many progressive beltway types are expressingshock at the notion that Democrats don't think that the 111th Congress has been particularly effective.
John Chait, probably since it allows him to indulge in his pastime of insisting the Democratic base is depressive,is one of the more strident:
This is just nuts. This is, objectively, a very productive Congress. Now, right-wingers think it's been productive at dystopian, freedom-destroying confiscations of wealth that remind them of an Ayn Rand novel. But clearly Congress is doing a lot. The fact that Democrats think Congress has accomplished little is evidence of some kind of chronic depressive tendency.
I really, really don't understand this attitude. This is not hard: the Democratic base and the various beltway pundits are both right. This Congress has been incredibly effective,and it has not made that much of a difference yet.
This Congress has done some very good things. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is an unqualified success. The health care reform bill is a good bill. The financial reform bill is a good bill. Adding real teeth to work and safety inspections is an unambiguously good step. The war in Iraq truly is beginning to wind down. The EPA regulations really are a going to be an effective weapon against global warming. The reforms of the student lending industry really will help poor and middle class students. The stimulus really did prevent a much worse recession and helped turn the economy mostly around.
But we didn't get serious legislation that addresses global warming. We didn't get legislation to counter the horrible Citizens United case. We didn't get card check or any legislation aimed at evening the playing field between labor and businesses when it comes to unionizing. Most of the benefits of the health reform bill will not take place for three years, and the bill amounts to turning health insurance into a public utility. That is a lot better than the status quo, but it is no where near as good as turning health care into a public service. The financial reform bill did not radically restructure the banking industry to make it less predatory and more useful to society. Afghanistan was ramped up. Civil liberties have not been restored. Gitmo was kept open. Senate reform was not even attempted.
I could go on, but I think the point is clear. We got a lot of good out this Congress, but we didn't get a lot that was good enough considering the terrible situation the country is in. What makes all of this worse is that the reason we didn't get much that was good enough is because of centrist and conservative Dems blocked much of what would have been good enough, often for incoherent or contradictory reasons. After watching the DLC fail spectacularly electorally and in terms of policy, it is extremely disheartening to see its practitioners standing in the way of effective and popular policies. Add to that the decision of the White House to run on an "everything is great" platform instead of "we made a start but have a lot of work left to do" platform, and the opinions of the Dem base about this Congress are perfectly rational.
So while people like Klein and Chait and Drum are technically correct, they are missing the larger picture. It is not ignorant or depressive to think that the Congress was not particularly effective. Compared to the magnitude of the problems facing the country, this Congress was not, in fact, particularly effective. That the pundit left seems so blind to this fact is more than a little bit disturbing.