The Golden State: Trendsetter

In its December 5 edition, Time contains a briefing item titled “Failure is the New Normal.”

The subject is Congress.

“In today’s hyperpartisan era, ideological purity trumps problem solving,” Time says.

The failure of the apparently not-so-super-duper committee to shave $1.2 trillion off the federal government’s $15.1 trillion debt – over 10 years – is the most recent example.

“Inaction has come to define the legislative branch,” Time says.

This performance — or lack thereof — by the 112^th Congress is apparently significantly more awful than that of the 80^th Congress of 1948 which President Harry Truman branded the “Do Nothing” and “the worst in history.”

Time continues by noting that funding for national public works improvements, whose deteriorating condition politicians of both parties lament, is stalled because of a gas tax measure that can’t garner the votes necessary for passage.

But there is a silver lining:

The number of bills signed into law has dropped from 125 in 2009 to just 44 this year.

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