How would you rate the 117th Congress?

Looking back over the past two years, how would you rate the most recent Congress compared to other legislative sessions in the past few decades? How much did they get passed and what sort of impact will the bills passed ultimately have? How did this compare to your expectations?

The largest bills passed were the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure build, and the Inflation Reduction act.

Other notable legislation includes the PACT act, CHIPs act, Postal Service Reform act, Safer Communities act, and Respect for Marriage Act among others.

I personally think they accomplished a huge amount considering they had literally no room for error in the Senate. Plus the IRA was the climate change bill that was massively needed for the world at large, they get high marks from me for this bill alone.

7/10. Solid, above average session. Not special.

1/10

Passed some important legislation. Could have done more but it would have died in the Senate anyway. Hard to blame the House.

Yeah, same.

I'm generally tempted to rate all of them kind of low because they never do as much as they should, but they did some good stuff despite the odds (COVID, rampant misinformation, obstructionists, etc)

Are your rating them that because they're a governmental body 😂 or because you actually think they did a poor job?

@mrbojangles25: There's value in just doing what must be done with speed, particularly when fighting off a recession which is very time sensitive.

Seraph gives them props for environmental legislation. I give them props for economic policy and expediency.

@The_Deepblue: You don't think it's important to spend money on defence and international relations? Weird.

If I was American, I'd absolutely want the US to continue funding Ukraine. It keeps one the USA's biggest threats tied up in a humiliating war that severely weakens Putin's position, and it helps improve US relations and alliances with every other democratic country, all without risking the lives of any US soldiers.

That seems really important at a time when Russia has admitted to interfering with US elections, and has shown nothing but belligerence towards the US and its allies.

@Planeforger: Throw billions at an inevitable loss to protect a country that most Americans know nothing about when the American citizenry has more than its share of problems to which the government seems to turn a blind eye?

I’m tired of America being the cop of the world when its own precincts are crumbling from so much moral and social decay, not to mention the hollowing out of the middle class economically.

But it’s a natural consequence of globalism. Oh well.

I agree. Nothing but bloated pork barrel spending while the american people suffer under rising costs of living, rising crime, neglecting our border security, But hey! We gave Ukraine over 100 billion dollars and gave a shit ton of money to the IRS. Because thats what the average ever day American is concerned about right... lol Giving our money to Ukraine and IRS Agents. Oh yeah baby!! Love it!! That's what we have been begging for from our government lol...

Then people wonder why Congress struggles to break a 20% approval rating lmao....

https://www.statista.com/statistics/207579/public-approval-rating-of-the-us-congress/

@mrbojangles25 I think they are inept. They do little to nothing to actually help the American people. The majority of congress is in it to please their donors once they get in. Most owe favors to corporations and special interest groups. The system is too bloated and corrupt to actually do anything meaningful for the American people. I dont think its always been like this historically. But in my lifetime i see congress as a deformed monster of what it was intended to be.

It no longer feels like the "peoples" House.

Its Google's house ,Its Exxon's house, its "whoever has the most money to give to us" House.

agree 100%

Completely uninformed position.

Cost per citizen so far is max $150. Total govt spending in 2022 is $6 Trillion. Ukraine spending/pledged is $50 Billion.

For that tiny drop in a bucket, a major adversary has been militarily gutted, economically and technologically blockaded, and setback at least a decade.

Meanwhile your own alliance has been strengthened, allies have pledged greater sustained military funding, new members are joining, significant allies are weening themselves off dependence on the adversaries energy supplies and geopolitical goodwill has shifted towards you and away from the adversary.

This is by far the cheapest, most cost effective, most militarily and economically successful rebalance of power among major adversaries in many decades and possibly in history. And with virtually no fatalities to the major benefactors.

And Ukraine itself, whatever the final borders turn out to be, will move firmly into the western camp.

It's a gift from Putin.

I don't want anything to do with that 6 TRILLION in spending... Its insanity.

I don't want to fund war in Ukraine when the American people are hurting.

That massive bucket is the problem. Government spending is absolutely out of control.

Democrats and Biden got a tremendous amount done for the American people, likely only 2nd to FDR.

You know how you can tell republicans don't have both houses of congress and the white house? They're still pretending to care about the national debt.

It seems to me that if it's truly a crisis we can make up some of the difference by repealing a portion of the "biggest tax cut ever" that was passed during Trump administration. We can all agree on that, right?

I mean that sounds good to me.

David truly an old man yelling at clouds in that chamber. Nobody cares Democrat or Republican. But atleast the guy is consistent. He gave all the new representatives another shouting today "Your government is an insurance company with an army" lol

I appreciate him saying it tho.

@sargentd: He's peddling the same bullshit talking points the GOP has always relied on, including the trickle down economics excuses why tax increases are off the table.

****ing please. No one is buying this shit anymore.

He's just showing the math on the debt and spending. Has nothing to do with trickle down anything. You didn't listen to him.

I absolutely did listen to him, it appears you failed to. "The country has a spending problem. As you can see, as tax rate decreases economic growth goes up, blah blah blah."

He's not talking about that lol. He's pointing out that it is straight up impossible to actually balance the budget with current spending. He's pointing out the math. That almost 75% of our spending is mandatory. Compared to 30% decades ago. That even if your taxed everyone who makes 500,000 or more at a 100% it wouldn't even be able to put a dent in it. That even if you cut US military spending entirely it would barley put a fraction of a dent in it and that both Republicans and Democrats are commiting fraud by telling thier constituents they are going to fix it. That the hard math is ignored by the majority of both Democrats and Republicans and if they keep ignoring it and kicking it down the road it's going to implode. That many on both on the left and right don't want to aknowledge the math because it pretty much invalidates thier promises to do anything about it, they pretend thier proposals will do anything is fraud to the American people.

as was posted. you couldn't ask for a better return on that relatively ( % of federal budget ) paltry investment.

the "i don't want to fund X while Y is a problem attitude" is a cop out imo. Y is always a problem. that doesn't mean you can't also address X.

Better than the crap I took last week