Members of Congress will go home this weekend, ending a year that will go down in the history books for legislative dysfunction.

The greatest achievements of the last 12 months are the things that Congress didn’t do: It didn’t shut down the government, it didn’t default on the nation’s debt, it didn’t end jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.

Additional Photos

Reporters surround speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio after a House vote on the payroll tax cut in Washington on Friday. The Associated Press

But it’s the other things that Congress didn’t do that outweigh any positive feelings we might have for those defensive stops our representatives achieved. They didn’t pass a budget, they didn’t come to an agreement on deficit reduction, and they made no progress on job creation.

Without a doubt, this Congress earned the distinction of the least popular Congress in the history of polling, with only 11 percent approval in the latest Gallup poll. And you have to wonder what that 11 percent were thinking.

At this point, it’s customary for commentators to say that both sides are at fault and they all should try to work together. But there are some actors in this drama who deserve most of the blame for this record of failure. House Republicans misread the vote of 2010 to be a mandate to tear down government and fight ideological battles while the people’s business was left to wait.

The year ended with another self-imposed white-knuckle deadline with an outcome never in doubt: Congress would not let a one-year payroll tax holiday expire and take $1,000 in spending money away from the average family in 2012. It was equally obvious that Republicans would not let the tax break be paid for by a surtax on the wealthy, even if it was limited to taxpayers who reported an annual income over $1 million.

The final “compromise” extends the payroll tax break for 60 days, setting up another showdown. Sen. Olympia Snowe has called for Congress to cancel its winter recess to keep working. If there was any sign that this group of lawmakers was going to seriously engage on solving problems, that might be a good idea.

But even Sen. Snowe, who has taken a hard-line stance on the millionaire’s tax, has given no sign that an early return would be productive. Members of Congress don’t need to go to Washington to get nothing done. They can do that at home, where perhaps their constituents will let them know what changes they expect to see in the new year.

Related Stories