An editorial in today's USA Today outlines a list of issues that the Republican "Do-Nothing" Congress failed to address before heading off for the August recess after the shortest legislative session in 60 years. From immigration reform to the war in Iraq to increasing the minimum wage, while Democrats have stood ready to get to work, the Republican-led Congress has failed to lead.

So much to do, so little time ... so Congress skips town

Editorial

USA Today

August 7, 2006

"As Congress settles into its month-long August break, it's hard to shake the feeling that the House and Senate haven't earned their time off. Instead of tending to basics and working out differences on divisive but vital issues such as immigration, members have spent much of the past several months in political posturing and time-wasting debates over non-essential issues.

"One thing Congress must do each year is pass the annual spending bills that fund everything from the space program to border security. So far, the Senate has produced just one of the 11 appropriations bills. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has found it more important to fritter away scarce time on an obsessive quest to repeal the estate tax and on blatant pandering to social conservatives with proposed constitutional amendments on flag-burning and gay marriage. Even those who think those issues are crucial would have an easier time defending debate time for them if the Senate had done its mandatory work first.

"It's not as if Congress can't act quickly if it wants to. To stop election-year talk that Republicans planned to let the Voting Rights Act expire, the House and Senate moved at lightning speed to renew key provisions of it a year early. Other achievements include a pension reform bill, a mining safety law, changes to the Patriot Act, emergency funding for wars and hurricanes, and an expansion of embryonic stem cell research that President Bush shamefully vetoed. But that's just a fraction of what a productive Congress should achieve. ..."

To read this entire editorial, please click here.