HERCULANEUM

A Very Productive Congress, Despite What The Approval Ratings Say

By Norman Ornstein
Sunday, January 31, 2010

"When President Obama urged lawmakers during his State of the Union speech to work with him on "restoring the public trust," he was hardly going out on a limb. The Congress he was addressing is one of the least popular in decades. Barely a quarter of Americans approve of the job it's doing, according to the latest Gallup/USA Today poll, while 58 percent said it was below average or one of the worst ever, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal survey last month.

It's not hard to find reasons why Americans are down on Capitol Hill, and why President Obama's approval rating has dropped below 50 percent in many polls. A year into the 111th Congress, unemployment remains at 10 percent, and many Americans are struggling to get by -- even as they've watched Congress bail out banks and coddle the same bankers now salivating over massive new bonuses. At the same time, the public has had a front-row seat to the always messy legislative process on health care and other issues, and this past year that process has been messier, more rancorous and more partisan than at any point in modern memory.

There seems to be little to endear citizens to their legislature or to the president trying to influence it. It's too bad, because even with the wrench thrown in by Republican Scott Brown's election in Massachusetts, this Democratic Congress is on a path to become one of the most productive since the Great Society 89th Congress in 1965-66, and Obama already has the most legislative success of any modern president -- and that includes Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson. The deep dysfunction of our politics may have produced public disdain, but it has also delivered record accomplishment." (Keep Reading)

I keep hearing that Scott Brown was voted in because people wanted change. I happen to believe that he was voted in because of complacency and arrogance in the Democratic party that the Senate seat would easily go to another democrat. And the fact that it was an off-season election, thus complacency and arrogance in the democratic voters as well who stayed home thinking that it would easily go to another democrat. But, whether my belief is correct or not, people wanted change last year, that's why Barack Obama was voted in as President.

We received the change we wanted. And now, unfortunately, we're going to have to be a little more patient with the results. Although, I don't believe as citizens that we should be sitting back on our laurels. I believe that we should be holding our politicians accountable and be extremely vocal in our opinions. And hopefully, if we're doing our job, our opinions are based on facts, not hearsay.

So, I'll shut my pie-hole for this post, but not without saying that I'm not giving up hope on this President, or this Congress. At least for the time being, it appears that they're not doing such a terrible job after all.

* Obama, GOP exchange barbs, ideas in rare encounter

* Obama Goes To GOP Lions' Den -- And Mauls The Lions

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