And not looking to good in the future............
Quote: Just look at, for instance, Congress' work habits.
Obama: Economy 'is not doing fine'
Romney: Obama not up to the task
The Republican-controlled House's frequent election-year recesses do little to clear the mountain of legislative work off their plates and have rankled such Democratic colleagues as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California.
"Instead of recessing yet again, the House should remain at work and pass critical legislation that will create jobs for the middle class that will actually be signed into law. Republicans must not run out the clock on the economy," Pelosi wrote in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, this week, adding that the upcoming recess is the ninth weeklong break this year.
Whether President Obama or Republican Mitt Romney occupies the Oval Office next year, both men are facing an indigestion-inducing plate full of domestic problems.
Either one could, for instance, have to preside over a dramatic overhaul of the health care reform law if the Supreme Court strikes down the individual coverage mandate as unconstitutional this month. The original law passed in 2010 without a single Republican vote in the House or the Senate.
The backlog of bills that have passed in one chamber but are in limbo in another include the hotly debated transportation bill. Many House Republicans want any deal on the transportation construction measure to include approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
In the Senate, both parties are at loggerheads on the best way to address mushrooming student loan rates.
If the balance of power in the Senate shifts to the Republicans, as some political analysts expect, or Democrats and Republican end up with a near equal number of seats, partisan gridlock could become even worse.
Both the Cook Political Report and the Rothenberg Political Report suggest that at least two to four Senate seats are in play, including open seats in the battleground states of Virginia and Wisconsin. Seats in Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico and Maine are also competitive.
"You can expect these bitter times to continue," said Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of the book "It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism."
It's little wonder why.
Could Congress go from bad to worse after election? - CNN.com