Do Less Than Nothing Congress

The Daily Kos did a pretty factual job on reporting on this ABC story that Congress Is Empty, Get Used to It. ABC said:

"The average American has worked more than 50 days in 2006, but, so far, the House has worked in Washington just 19 days, a total of 118 hours. The Senate is not far behind with 33 days at the Capitol."

The Daily Kos added goes on to say with the current schedule it should work out to about 40% of what working Americans will do. And they take the base salary of $165,200 per year and break that down to $213 an hour. They go on to say being in session isn't always working. To me though they missed the good quote from ABC:

"The House calendar is already set for the rest of the year. The representatives will meet for two weeks in April, a week in May and July, and all of August. Even a national newspaper points out that with fewer than 100 days scheduled, the House is on track to be in session less than what President Harry Truman called the "do-nothing" Congress of 1948."

Gee, and early today Bush said: " if looked at objectively, would say, well, they got a lot done" Not so much. Here's what the House did in 2006. They've only passed 37 things and most of those are useless or double counting a vote. The most real things include the Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act, Pension Protection Act of 2005, National Uniformity for Food Act, some appropriations, and of course renewing the Patriot Act. Here are the more fun things they passed:

• "Expressing the sense of Congress that the Russian Federation should fully protect the freedoms of all religious communities without distinction, whether registered and unregistered, as stipulated by the Russian Constitution and international standards."
• "Expressing support for the efforts of the people of the Republic of Belarus to establish a full democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights and urging the Government of Belarus to conduct a free and fair presidential election on March 19, 2006."
• "To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to designate the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home in Hope, Arkansas, as a National Historic Site and unit of the National Park System, and for other purposes"
• "To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 6110 East 51st Place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as the Dewey F. Bartlett Post Office"
• "Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Texas Westerns 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship and recognizing the groundbreaking impact of the title game victory on diversity in sports and civil rights in America"
• "Honoring the contributions of Catholic schools"
• "Congratulating the National Football League champion Pittsburgh Steelers for winning Super Bowl XL and completing one of the greatest postseason runs in professional sports history"
• and my favorite "To eliminate floor privileges and access to Member exercise facilities for registered lobbyists who are former Members or officers of the House"

Wikipedia's list of what the 109th Congress has done is pretty weak too, though I'm not sure it's complete. Though with these bozo's it's probably good that they're not doing much.