Editorial: Congress takes pass on substance

Friday, Oct. 16, 1998 | 11:44 a.m.

As Congress winds up the federal budget and prepares to go home, it's obvious that the American people realize this was a do-nothing Congress. A New York Times/CBS News poll released Thursday found that support for the Republican-controlled Congress has diminished markedly in the wake of the House's vote to open an impeachment inquiry into President Clinton.

Apparently the public believes that Congress has spent too much time on impeachment and done too little on the issues that genuinely matter to the public, whether it's protecting Social Security or bettering the care patients receive from managed-care companies.

Some of the poll's results:

-- Congress' approval rating dropped from a high of 56 percent in September to 43 percent now.

-- Almost half of all voters said the GOP-controlled Congress accomplished less than a Congress usually would.

-- Even more telling is the finding that most Americans couldn't name one accomplishment of Congress this year.

Members of Congress should take note of the comments from those who were interviewed for the poll. Pat Hobbs, a retired secretary who lives in California, believed this Congress did not care about important issues. "I think they're all too mixed up with the scandal in Washington and they're not doing anything else. They should be working on things that really concern the country like the economy, education, crime, Social Security, Medicare reform, you name it," she said.

Even someone who supported the Republicans' Contract with America felt the Republicans have lost their way. Mike Stivila of Colts Neck, N.J., said that was "the first time a congressional body actually laid out what they were going to do and the time it would take to accomplish it. You don't hear that coming from Congress today."

Stivila is right. The only thing you hear from the Republican-led Congress today is the incessant yammering of how it can't do anything. The Republican leadership in both houses can find almost any excuse -- no matter how ridiculous -- to kill meaningful campaign finance reform, derail the patient's bill of rights legislation and snuff out an anti-tobacco bill.

At one time this Congress offered so much promise. It appeared that genuine reforms actually had a chance. But once again partisanship, mixed with the influence of special interest groups, killed important legislation that could benefit the lives of all Americans. The Republican leadership should be ashamed of its failure to do the right thing.