House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) attacked her Republican colleagues on Friday, ripping the GOP majority as an aimless, chaotic, “make-matters-worse” caucus.
“How do you explain to the American people that today, Congress will go into an August recess, and after more than six months of this Congress…we still have no jobs bill, we have no budget bill, and we have the threat of shutting down government and not raising the debt ceiling,” Pelosi said at her weekly press conference.
“This was a do-nothing Congress, and now it has gone to something worse,” Pelosi added. “This is an aimless Congress. It’s falling into chaos. It’s a ‘make-matters-worse’ Congress.”
Shortly after Pelosi’s fiery press conference, House Republicans made a 40th attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. In a 228 to 185 vote, the House passed the Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013, which would prohibit the IRS from enforcing over 40 provisions of the Affordable Care Act, including the individual mandate. All 228 Republicans present voted in favor of the bill. Like each of the House’s previous attempts to derail health care reform, however, the bill is purely symbolic, with no chance of passing the Senate or being signed by the president.
The Republican majority’s latest futile attempt to undo Obamacare is the exclamation point to another startlingly unproductive legislative session. Having passed just 15 bills which became laws, the 113th Congress is on pace to be the least productive in history (by any measure that Speaker John Boehner chooses.) After a string of high-profile embarrassments, the House has essentially given up on passing major legislation, instead turning its full focus to embarrassing the president.
As Pelosi noted, there are no signs of imminent improvement; the House is scheduled to work just nine days in September, raising serious doubts about its ability to reach a budget deal that will keep the government running past October 1st, much less pass any other major legislation.
