The Fighting 111th.

by Stuart Shapiro

It’s a common meme circulating the Internet, but it bears repeating both because it is correct and, outside those who pay a lot of attention to politics, it is not sufficiently appreciated.  The Congressional session that just ended with the most productive lame duck session ever, was indeed historical.

“I would probably rank the New Deal [Congress] first,” congressional scholar Norm Ornstein told First Read. “I think this one edges the Great Society. It is at least on par with the Great Society.”

“For all the dysfunction, it was just astonishing what they were able to get done,” Ornstein added.

Would it have been nice to get more?  Sure.  I would have loved to have seen Reid use Financial Reform (a very popular issue) to challenge the filibuster rules in the Senate.  But after Reid’s performance in the lame duck, I am willing to forgive and forget.  The list of accomplishments is staggering (click through for a partial list).  And no matter what John Boehner and Mitch McConnell say, they’re not going away.  While they wage a battle to repeal health care reform which will result in at most marginal changes, all of these other statutes will be implemented by the Obama Administration.  Thank you Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.