The Do-Nothing Congress

(CBS)  Last spring, senators announced a deal on immigration reform. But the measure never had a chance in the House. And now, like so much else, it isn't even a long shot, CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.

A CBS News/New York Times poll finds 75 percent of voters can't name one thing Congress has accomplished.

"They haven't passed anything," Susan Blu says.

Matthew Luther Cooke agrees. "I don't know what Congress has done. I feel like they've done nothing. If they'd done something, I want to know about it," he says.

It's not as if Congress really has been sitting around doing nothing. Today, the House passed the bill providing for military tribunals for enemy combatants. But as Congress prepares for a recess, there are many big-ticket items still dangling.

You could give Congress an "incomplete" on issues including immigration, port security, lobby reform, and even domestic wiretapping.

Democrats say "don't blame us."

"We don't control the Congress. The majority party does," says Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

By "majority party," he means the Republicans, who control the House and Senate. They should be able to pass whatever they want — the problem is that they haven't agreed on much.

"Whether it's health insurance reform, whether it's energy reform, it just stops in the Senate," says Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa.

He should know. Peterson's bill to open up drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf passed the House, but is dead in the Senate.

"It seems like every major issue is coming to a screeching halt in the Senate," Peterson says.

But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says it's just checks and balances at work. "Some of the things that come out of the House need to come to a screeching halt in the Senate," Graham says.

Graham gives Congress a B+ for issues like pension reform and the Patriot Act, which both the House and Senate passed this year.

But what about the real toughies?

When it comes to dealing with Social Security and Medicare and those problems that loom large, Graham says he gives Congress a D.

Congress is expected return after elections, but there's always the question over whether they'll be motivated to do anything ... that's why they call it a "lame duck session."

[leewah1]

With less than 100 days in session, that translates into pay of $1,652 per day -- for doing nothing.

Imagine getting paid that much money for standing on the floor of the Senate to argue against raising the minimum wage by 150 pennies per hour.

Obscene.

[mjv2944]

Do-nothing is an understatement, they are completely and totally inept. They work only 80 days a year, make great money and have the best retirement in the world. They do not deserve this. Vote all incumbents out. We deserve and pay for a lot better representation than we get. These characters are WORTHLESS. Boy term limits rare really starting to look good.

[long_rider]

It is a fact that congress has done nothing, but support tax breaks for the rich, and give away our constitutional rights.

I hope they continue to do nothing. I don't want a party controlled congress working on social security, medi-care, and the really important issues. This administration and congress have demonstrated that they care more for party politics than they do the American people. We have a president who has %u201Cpolitical capital%u201D and chooses to spend it on his rich friends, and promoting the destruction of our basic freedoms.

The president, vp, and sec. of defense are buffoons, and congress has bought into the farce of terror in America. This administration keeps beating the same drum, and the controlled press keeps hanging on every word, and congress continues to do nothing.

Us Americans deserve what we get from this administration, and the do nothing congress, simply because we permit them to keep doing nothing. What has happened to our will to protest the actions of this administration?

%u201CAnd the American sheep keep grazing%u201D