Kudos to Congress

Everyone notices when Congress fails to do its job (for example, the government shutdown). It’s important to notice when they do things right. Over the past few weeks, the House passed a bipartisan compromise budget that will avoid going from crisis to crisis for the next two years. The Senate changed its rules to reduce abuse of the filibuster. And despite a lot of counterproductive rhetoric, Congress adjourned without enacting new sanctions that would have torpedoed the temporary agreement with Iran.

Each of these accomplishments can be criticized. The budget failed to extend unemployment benefits, and it’s charitable to commend Congress for not undermining President Obama’s efforts to reduce the risk of nuclear war in the Middle East. But each of these items required Congress to stand up to powerful, well-funded interest groups. So when someone says that Congress can never get anything done, realize that sometimes they can.