who don t want to do anything ever. they think government should do less and less until it just withers away. so you get those combine. the congressional approval rating, ron, is 9%. 9%. look at that number. so his argument whether margie, whether he didn t do it because he didn t want to do it or couldn t do it, doesn t matter. and the argument the country s divided. it s always been divided. the question is do you get together with the other side and find a way to compromise or don t you? and he doesn t. not only we re all the losers by having such an inefficient congress and losing trust in our institutions which is what s happening, but they re paying a political cost. they have terrible ratings. more people say the republicans in congress are out for themselves than care about people. they have worse ratings than democrats. they keep taking hit after hit. their strategy is not working
don t get ideas. we ll see what happens. i don t know. it s a tough call. i ve never seen fighting in a hockey match before. that was fascinating. and there s also movember for mustaches. i m fond of those. i was wondering about that. yes. up next, house republicans have made this congress the least productive, big surprise, ever. and what s worse, they re proud of it. they don t do nothing and they love it. you re watching hardball, the place for politics. people don t have to think about where their electricity comes from. they flip the switch and the light comes on. it s our job to make sure that it does. using natural gas this power plant can produce enough energy for about 600,000 homes. generating electricity that s cleaner and reliable, with fewer emissions it matters.
congress has done next to nothing. we all know that president harry truman dubbed the 80th congress as the do nothing congress. yet the doing in congress in 1948 has nothing on this one. unfortunately, republicans talk work for everyone else, but when it comes to doing the work here in congress, well, they don t quite measure up to it. welcome back to hardball. do nothing is about right when it comes to the track record of this congress. it s not yet the least productive year in history, but close to it. to give you some historical context. when newt gingrich s republican revolution came to power in 1995, they managed to pass what was then a record low of 88 laws that year. in the first 11 months of 2013, the current congress has passed only 52 laws since being gavelled into session in january including aid for hurricane sandy victims, cost of living adjustments to military veterans, and the act which reopened the federal government
bismarck, north dakota, on saturday night. it s the latest promotion for the anchorman sequel. he was able to keep a straight face through the whole 30-minute newscast. here are some highlights. you look lovely tonight. thank you, ron. you too. are you married? no. well, i am. don t get ideas. we ll see what happens. i don t know. it s a tough call. i ve never seen fighting in a hockey match before. that was fascinating. and there s also movember for mustaches. i m fond of those. i was wondering about that. yes. up next, house republicans have made this congress the least productive, big surprise, ever. and what s worse, they re proud of it. they don t do nothing and they love it. you re watching hardball, the place for politics.
worst of all time. let us begin with just the simplest measure of how much congress is getting done. congressional productivity. it s the number of laws they have passed, public laws they have passed. this graph shows the number of public laws passed by every congress dating back to the 80th congress in 1947. that was a congress harry truman called the do-nothing congress. it varies every year but it s generally in the many hundreds. ready for this congress? yeah, that s it. that tiny little bar over there on the right, the one with the arrow. now, to be fair, there are still five months left in this session, but at this rate, they re on track to be by far the least productive congress in modern times. it s the do less than the do nothing congress. that sort of legislative ineptitude has also led the 112th congress to become the single most despised congress of all time in the eyes of the public. michael bennet of colorado put together this handy graph that