Editorial: An undeserved break for Congress

Congress is proving to be very adept at doing nothing.

Expectations for legislative action are always low in an election year. But Congress has lowered the bar even more in recent days, managing only a couple of partisan maneuvers before beating it out of town on a two-week recess.

It's a long time until November. Congress needs to find a way to get some of the public's business done between now and Election Day. But its performance on three big items last week -- transportation funding, oil industry subsidies and a budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 -- didn't provide much reason for optimism.

Instead of finding broad agreement on a bill to extend highway and mass transit funding, Congress passed a stopgap measure to keep road and infrastructure work on track for 90 days. It was the ninth temporary extension since the last multiyear funding plan expired in 2009. The Senate passed a bipartisan bill two weeks ago to fund transportation programs for two years. But for various unacceptable reasons, House Republicans have been unwilling to take up that bill, or even a version the House transportation committee passed earlier this year.

With roads and bridges crumbling and gasoline tax revenue to fix them dwindling, a plan for stable funding is critical. That's especially important for mass transit, including the MTA, which relies on federal dollars for new buses and subway cars and for major expansions of the system, such as East Side Access for the Long Island Rail Road.

Ending oil industry tax subsidies should be a simpler matter. The price of gasoline is soaring. So are oil company profits and federal budget deficits. What better time to finally repeal about $4 billion in annual tax breaks and subsidies for the largest oil companies? But a measure to do that didn't attract enough Senate votes last week to get to the floor for consideration. Even if it had gotten over the procedural hurdles and won Senate approval, it would have gone to the House, likely to die.

The tax subsidies are indefensible. They should be repealed. With consumers fuming about high gas prices, Democrats who want to end the breaks raised the issue to highlight Republican support for big oil, and opposition to anything that could be considered a tax hike.

House Republicans seized a similar opportunity Thursday when they passed a 2013 budget resolution. The partisan, fantasy framework championed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) would cut spending beyond previously agreed levels, slash taxes, authorize rewriting the tax code, dismantle Medicare, repeal "Obamacare" and generally wreak havoc on domestic spending. It's dead on arrival as a budget, but very much alive as a campaign blueprint. Republicans insist it proves they're the only ones serious about cutting budget deficits.

The Senate hasn't done even that much. Democratic leaders say it's unlikely they'll pass a budget bill, relying instead on spending caps enacted to end the debt-limit showdown in July as their budget framework. Congress hasn't passed an official budget -- complete with required appropriation bills to fund individual departments -- in three years. That's a woeful record of fiscal management.

The only thing Congress has agreed on recently is recess.