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<div class="timestamp">March 14, 2012</div>
<h1>The Senate Overachieves</h1>
<span><h6 class="byline">By <a rel="author" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/gailcollins/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by Gail Collins" class="meta-per">GAIL COLLINS</a></h6>
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<p>
Good news, frustrated American citizens! Congress is not a clogged up, hidebound legislative slug after all. </p>
<p>
Bills were flying through the Senate on Wednesday like great flocks of
geese soaring into the turbines of a passenger jet. </p>
<p>
First, the senators passed legislation that would keep all the federally
financed highway programs from coming to a screeching halt when money
runs out at the end of this month. (Completely unnecessary disaster
averted!) </p>
<p>
Then, the party leaders came to an agreement on easing a bottleneck of
uncontroversial judicial nominations. (People with no enemies cleared
for hiring!) </p>
<p>
Some of you may be wondering how the judges got bottlenecked in the
first place if they were uncontroversial. It’s a long story. But,
basically, the Republicans, irritated about totally unrelated matters,
vented their frustration by putting their feet on the necks of helpless
judicial nominees, people without an enemy in the world, who just wanted
to go in and help clear up the critical case backload in the nation’s
federal courts. </p>
<p>
“It’s easy to make Republicans look bad,” complained Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, accurately. </p>
<p>
Senator Charles Schumer of New York dared to hope that “an idea of a
moment of greater comity that we’ve seen this week is not just
momentary, but will last on into the future.” It was possibly not the
most stirring prose ever, but it was hard to talk coherently with all
the emotion in the air. </p>
<p>
One of the great challenges for citizens in an era of partisan rancor is
figuring out whether to applaud whenever our elected representatives
manage to accomplish anything whatsoever. The bar is getting pretty low.
Are we supposed to be thrilled that Congress managed to reauthorize the
Federal Aviation Administration? Doesn’t really seem much to ask. On
the other hand, if you have seen this crowd in action, you know it’s a
wonder that they’ve managed to keep paying the air traffic controllers’
salaries. </p>
<p>
The transportation bill could actually have some trouble in the House,
since the Republicans there were talking about slashing away at the
spending and tying the whole thing to drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. It used to be that, if nothing else, you could count on
our men and women in Washington to work together when it came to
passing lots and lots of highway projects. But no more, apparently. I
think I speak for many Americans when I say that I miss the Bridge to
Nowhere. </p>
<p>
Still, we have not seen so much positive action since the House and
Senate each passed a bill making it illegal for members of Congress to
engage in insider trading. Although that one has not actually made it
into law because of a disagreement between the two chambers on the
definition of a lobbyist. </p>
<p>
And, yeah, I know you thought it was illegal already. </p>
<p>
After its run of accomplishment, the Senate did not rest on its laurels.
No, it moved right on to begin consideration of a bipartisan bill —
passed in the House by an enormous margin — that would remove investor
protections in the financial marketplace. </p>
<p>
Say what? </p>
<p>
Ah, yes, the JOBS Act. JOBS stands for Jump-start Our Business
Start-ups. Basically, it relieves businesses that are preparing to go
public from some of the most important auditing regulations that
Congress passed after the Enron debacle. Also, new public companies
could delay following the rules on disclosing executive compensation
that were passed after the 2008 Wall Street implosion. And salesmen
could market stock in new companies to small investors on the Internet.
</p>
<p>
You could also call it the Just Open Bucket Shops Act. </p>
<p>
But it’s for small businesses! Small business is the heartbeat of the
American economy, partly because the way politicians define it, the term
includes virtually everyone. Enterprises so tiny that they are hardly a
business. Endeavors so big that Republicans can argue that raising
taxes on the richest 1 percent would be a terrible blow to small
business owners. </p>
<p>
These days, we are all small businesses. </p>
<p>
And it was bipartisan! “Democrats are eager to move this bill forward,”
said the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid. One of the biggest
complaints about the bill in the House was from Democrats who claimed
the Republicans had stolen it from them. </p>
<p>
When it comes to deregulating business, all of the worst ideas in the
modern history of Congress have been bipartisan to the core. People,
when you see Republicans and Democrats together, holding hands and
talking about unleashing the magic of the marketplace, hide your
wallets. </p>
<p>
Maybe we’ve had too much legislative achievement already. </p>
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br>