We’ve been burdened with dysfunctional Congresses before, but we’ve never been cursed with anything like the unified Republican Congresses under Donald Trump. “Normies” who (wisely) don’t follow politics closely are probably unaware of how historically dysfunctional these Congresses have been. In case you haven’t voted yet, here’s a quick rundown of things you ought to know before Election Day tomorrow:
This Congress, the 119th, has been historically unproductive. They’re on pace to enact the second-fewest laws in 40 years.
Part of the reason is that House Speaker Mike Johnson has canceled 63 of the total 261 scheduled voting days since this Congress began in January 2025. That’s almost one of every four scheduled days in session, canceled. You and I would be fired for missing that much work, but members of Congress don’t even have their pay docked. “The Founders did not envision taking this much time off and still getting paid,” said Republican Representative Ralph Norman.
He wasn’t the only Republican unhappy about votes being binned. Johnson’s most recent vote cancellation—back in September—avoided dealing with Thomas Massie’s (R) articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth until after November’s election, when the House will finally reconvene.
That vote cancellation echoed his decision last summer to adjourn early in order to block a vote on releasing the Epstein files.
Perhaps the most obvious sign of a dysfunctional Congress is government shutdowns—something unified governments (governments in which one party controls the House, the Senate, and the White House) rarely see. In fact, government-wide shutdowns in which 50+% of federal agencies stop functioning normally have only happened three times in America under unified governments. All three happened under Republican control, under President Trump.
One of these shutdowns in Trump’s first term was the second-longest in American history.
The one in his second term, under this Congress, was the longest in American history.
(This isn’t counting partial government shutdowns. But we endured two of those this year as well, including the longest partial shutdown in American history.)
Again, with job performance like this, you and I would be summarily fired.
In the face of unprecedented executive overreach, Congressional Republicans have rolled over again and again. They’ve allowed this president to repeatedly usurp powers granted to them by the Constitution: power to regulate trade (tariffs), power to declare war (Iran), and the power of the purse (spending) are only three examples.
Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), Republicans have railed against it and promised that they would repeal and replace it if we put them back in power. We have, twice. Under Trump, Republicans have had nearly four years of combined total power over the US Government. But despite their promises, and despite Trump claiming over and over and over for the past 14 years that he and Republicans would replace Obamacare with something wonderful, they have done nothing.
Well, almost nothing. They did pass the broadly unpopular “One Big Beautiful Bill” last year, which will see at least 10 million additional Americans uninsured over the next nine years. They also successfully fought against Democrats’ efforts to extend ACA subsidies. Our elected Republican representatives made sure that the millions of us who get our health insurance on the marketplace would have to pay an average of 58% more. (On a personal note: my family’s premium went up 54%. Shortly afterward, we received a letter informing us that our policy would be canceled at the end of 2026, as Cigna is withdrawing entirely from the marketplace.)
Perhaps I’m being unfair. While Republicans couldn’t be bothered to propose a health care fix or oppose Trump’s illegal war or pass much legislation or really show up to work much at all, I should still give them credit for the things they’ve at least tried to accomplish. Here is an incomplete list of bills they’ve introduced:
- Renaming Washington Dulles Airport “Donald J. Trump International Airport”
- Creating a $250 bill featuring the portrait of Donald Trump
- Instructing the Department of the Interior to add Donald Trump’s face to Mount Rushmore
- Combining Flag Day with Donald Trump’s birthday as a federal holiday
- Creating a Congressional Gold Medal to award to Donald Trump
- The “Make Entertainment Great Again Act” which would rename the Kennedy Center the “Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts”
- Renaming the Kennedy Center Opera House after Melania Trump (and making funding for the Center contingent on this renaming)
- Creating an annual “Trump Peace Prize,” and specifying that the first awardee will be Donald Trump
- Creating a resolution that Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize (these were introduced in both the House and the Senate)
- The “Golden Age Act” which would replace Ben Franklin with Donald Trump on all $100 bills
- Directing the National Institutes of Health to study “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (I swear I’m not making this up; it is an actual bill they actually introduced.)
The president keeps telling his supporters to pretend he’s on the ballot, and he’s not wrong. The number one reason he’s been able to get away with his corruption, his destruction of our institutions, his wrecking of our economy, and his seizing of powers not granted to him by the Constitution, is the servility of Republicans in Congress. They have refused to check him. Far from it, they’ve enabled him. They’ve practically worshipped him.
But they don’t work for him. They work for us. They’re supposed to, anyway.
You and I would be fired for job performance like theirs. They should be fired, too.
What we can do:
Vote. Vote, vote, vote. If you can’t bring yourself to vote for the Democrat, at least withhold your vote for the Republican.
