MEMORANDUM
To: Interested Parties
Fr: Democratic Leader’s Press Office
Dt: September 10, 2012
Re: GOP “Do Nothing” Congress Doing What They Do Best – Nothing
After a five week summer break, the GOP-led Congress finally is back in session… for just eight legislative days this month. That’s right – a week and a half to do, or not do as the case is with this Congress, the businesses of the American people.
While House Republicans have found the time to vote to end Medicare as we know it and increase costs for seniors while giving tax breaks to millionaires and companies that ship jobs overseas, they have failed to address the two things that matter most to the American families: creating jobs for workers here at home and tax cuts for middle class families and small businesses. This month, the GOP Do Nothing Congress is doing more of what they do best – nothing.
Reuters: Returning Congress faces big tasks, likely to do little
One of the most unpopular and unproductive Congresses in modern history returns on Monday from a five-week recess, facing a crush of big tasks, few of which will likely get done.
Lawmakers are expected to be in Washington for only about two weeks between now and the November 6 election, making their return to the capital little more than a pit stop…
Unfinished business on Capitol Hill includes bills to overhaul the massive farm law, improve cyber security for the nation’s critical infrastructure, downsize the ailing postal service, and normalize trade with Russia.
The most urgent item — making sure Congress does not trigger a recession early next year — is by all accounts on hold until after the election, when lawmakers will attempt to head off trouble of their own making: tax increases and automatic spending cuts that threaten to send the United States over what’s been called “a fiscal cliff.”
Corporate leaders say the uncertainty surrounding this single issue is already weighing on business decisions, particularly in the defense industry.
A preventable recession, induced by a forewarned Congress, would be a first… [9/9]
Politico: Fiscal Cliff: Congress Weighs Another Round of Kick the Can
For all the hype surrounding the dreaded fiscal cliff on taxes and spending, an increasing number of lawmakers are starting to push for Congress to do what it does best when faced with a difficult decision: punt…
Congress doesn’t have plans to do much legislating in the highly political pre-election season before November other than keeping the government running past Sept. 30. And after September, lawmakers will mainly be campaigning rather than dealing with the major fiscal questions that must be resolved before Jan. 1… [9/10]
Associated Press: Congress Set to Pass on Big Issues
When lawmakers return to Washington on Monday, they face big issues, including taxes, spending cuts and the prospect of a debilitating “fiscal cliff” in January. Yet Congress is expected to do what it often does best: punt problems to the future.
With Election Day less than two months away, their focus seems to be on the bare minimum — preventing a government shutdown when the budget year ends Sept. 30…
What may be most noteworthy then about the abbreviated pre-election session is not what Congress is doing but the stack of must-do work that lawmakers are leaving unfinished until a postelection lame-duck session. [9/10]