The Opposite Of...Working

     The sober advice of our history assures us, "That government which governs least, governs best."*  The old joke points out that "Con-gress is the opposite of pro-gress."

     The 118th Congress, currently sitting, is trying to run the experiment in the real world at full scale.  It's not going well.

     Like it or not (and I often don't), Congress has to crank out a vast number of routine bills to keep the Federal government paying what it owes, fulfilling international treaty obligations, coming through on whatever it has worked out with individual states of the union (and smaller civic units) and so forth and so on, right down to keeping the lawn mowed at all the various Federal facilities.  The 118th is barely managing that.  The House and Senate have been pretty good at introducing all manner of  "stunt" bills favoring special interests, slamming disfavored causes, groups and persons, and at making impassioned speeches, often to nearly-empty chambers.  They've been diligent about using their various kinds and sorts of committees to haul in public figures from business, politics, sports and show business, and alternately praise them and make them sweat.

     But by any yardstick, they haven't been getting much actually done.  The House can barely keep a Speaker -- and the Speakers, so far, have barely been able to keep things moving.  The Senate is somnolent.  Congress keeps dilly-dallying their way right up to the last minute on budget bills, and blasting one another over the horse-trading it takes to get even that far.

     So all that government governing least has led to way too much free time to stage impromptu clown shows, mischaracterize and attack the other two branches as well as (nominal) friends and foes in their own branch, and generally behave like frat boys and sorority girls with an open bar and a napping chaperone.  If that's best, we may be better off shopping for the Kirkland Signature version instead; at least it will have a smaller price tag.
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* Except it kind of doesn't assure us.  There's no evidence Thomas Jefferson, who usually gets credit, ever said it.  Nor did Thoreau; he came close but he was quoting someone else, and they (anonymously) put it, "The best government is that which governs least," a subtle difference.