111th Congress made history

Alvin Bessent is a member of the Newsday editorial board.

Congress is a horror show, and the last one was the worst yet. Right? That was the story line for much of the 111th Congress, which approached the end of its two-year run last week with an approval rating about as low as it can go. It was the epitome of tumultuous, loathsome, divisive lawmaking.

It was also productive, pragmatic and maybe even historic.

The 111th is getting credit for finishing strong. A lame duck that ended discrimination against gays in the military, ratified the first nuclear arms treaty in nearly two decades and revolutionized the food safety system, last overhauled in the 1930s, is one muscular duck. But this Congress racked up a pretty solid record even before November's election.

Flash back to early 2009, when the 111th was first gaveled into session. Wall Street was in free fall, the financial system paralyzed. General Motors and Chrysler were tumbling toward bankruptcy. Jobs were vanishing. Serious people were warning of the next Great Depression. Not exactly the best of times for a new Congress and a new president. But they played the hand they were dealt..

Congress approved a $787-billion spending package to stimulate the reeling economy, a controversial measure that helped head off deeper recession. It overhauled the financial regulatory system and created the first, federal Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

It confirmed the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Gave the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate the tobacco industry. And it enacted sweeping health care reform, something Congress had tried to do for decades and failed. Time will tell which of those achievements prove durable enough to become truly historic. But repealing "don't ask, don't tell" and confirming Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor are already a lock.

So how is it that a Congress that accomplished quite a bit is held in such disrepute?

Some, of course, just don't like what it did. Beyond that, a slogan from Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, best explains the nation's focus, "It's the economy, stupid." As long as the unemployment rate is near double digits, people are losing their homes and millions owe more than their houses are worth, Congress won't get credit for doing much right.

And it doesn't help that the lawmaking process was hideous and disgusting. The craven deal-making, defiant partisanship and ugly ideological warfare turned people off.

Congress was able to soldier through all that initially because, with the nation in crisis, an overwhelming Democratic majority and a newly elected Democratic president could simply muscle their agenda into law.

That changed in the summer of 2009 with the rise of the tea party and the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who was replaced by a Republican, which doomed the Democrats' filibuster-proof Senate majority.

There was a lot the 111th didn't get done, things like immigration reform, climate-change legislation and even a 2010 budget.

But Obama's decision this month to deal with Republicans - by agreeing to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich in exchange for the economic stimulus of unemployment benefits and tax breaks for the rest - cleared the way for a bipartisan December to remember.

January brings a switch to a Republican House majority. With deficit reduction and rewriting the tax code on the agenda, things are bound to get a lot tougher. But if we're blind to the fact that the 111th Congress actually accomplished quite a bit of importance, then the most intractable problem facing the nation may be cynicism.