High hopes for the next Congress
Gratefully, the 112th Congress, arguably the worst since 1861, is gone. Certainly it is the least productive since the 1920s.

The Republicans institutionalized anti-democratic obstructionism. In the Senate they used the filibuster to require 60 votes on virtually every measure and every appointment. In the House, they allowed one-half of their majority, made up largely of tea-party extremists, to veto anything brought to the floor for a vote.

Thus the legislative system was paralyzed. The Republicans took an advantage of every crisis and made it worse. Efforts to improve the slumping economy were nixed in the belief that economic hardship would harm President Obama. Desperately poor and unemployed Americans were mere collateral damage.

Compromise was a dirty word. Much of their time was spent on extremist fantasy budgeting and measures against reproductive rights, which they knew would go nowhere. Even at their death throws, 151 Republican representatives were willing to send the country into a recession to get their way.

Their hatred of Obama allows them to oppose anything he says or proposes. And their hatred of government should disqualify them from governing. They are only interested in their own power, and are profoundly unpatriotic.

Let's hope the 113th Congress is at least somewhat productive and responsible.

—David Rader, Seattle

Media hype
The Congress of the United States is so far out of touch with the people they represent that it is a joke. It is not like we ask them to work 150 days a year.
Was the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling just media hype for ratings?

—Harriet Benjamin, Seattle