upgoing direction, for all the things they were going to do with complete control of the house and the senate for these past two years, we can now say it has not gone well. let start just for perspective with after world war ii. this is all the congresses, all the sessions of congress that have happened since 1947. those blue lines show the number of bills that each congress was able to pass. the last line with the arrow pointing to it, that is the congress that comes to an end today. you will notice that congress over the last few years has been a little stunted, is probably the polite way to put it, since the republicans took over the house in their big wave election in 2010. look at that, the three congresses since then, the 114th congress just ended today, those three are the least productive congresses of all time. since the republicans took control of the house in 2010, the three congresses since then
the last line with the arrow pointing to it, that is the congress that comes to an end today. you will notice that congress over the last few years has been a little stunted, is probably the polite way to put it, since the republicans took over the house in their big wave election in 2010. look at that, the three congresses since then, the 114th congress just ended today, those three are the least productive congresses of all time. since the republicans took control of the house in 2010, the three congresses since then rank first, second, and third as the least productive congresses we ve ever had, since anybody started tracking the productivity of congresses at the end of world war ii. this congress just ending today also had the lowest confirmation rate for civilian nominees in modern american history. for the first time since the modern budget process was created in 1974, this congress for the first time ever, they didn t even try to pass a
later. aaron, we have scott brown running in new hampshire. how are his chances looking? i think it s certainly a situation where if the environment in 2014 is really good for republicans he s got a good shot. there was a poll this week that showed his opponent is much better liked than he is, and despite that fact, though, he was within six points of her in a state that he didn t represent in the senate before. i think this is definitely an interesting race and i don t think it s the republican party s top target in 2014 or close to it, but if this winds up being a big wave election, scott brown could return to the senate from a different state. lynn, could i ask you about the u.s. rejecting the visa plans for iran s pick for u.s. ambassador? do you know what that is about?
right? most of the states have redistricted to the point where a huge percentage of congress are in wildly safe districts. so, unless there s a big wave election, the new normal that we ve seen in sequestration will be what happens for four years, and i think the president realizes that has to be broken. and michael steele, to that point, i mean, because of the gerrymandered districts, both parts are implicated in that. mitch mcconnell is going to face a primary challenge, so in reality it s all good. well, i mean, there s not going to be any deal making until 2014 is over. you re right. to joy s point there, they are shoveling something this week, and i don t think it s snow. it is something, and it s the usual stuff that they shovel. although i have to admit, i m glad, to your point, to see the president doing these things, these very overt efforts to
schizophrenia play out in the tight race and joe manchin as you know is not only popular, he s a conservative democrat, with the backing of the national rifle association and so on. so it is definitely a race to watch. martha: we have seen, yes, firing the gun, in commercials and caught himself called himself, as many democrats are, a different kind of democrat and we hear that in the kentucky race as well and it is interesting, we haven t seen the numbers move much in west virginia since the last polling and yet we hear there are a good number of undecided voters out there. we ll have perhaps surprises on election night? i think we ll have surprises everywhere on election night. because it s hard, with the intensity, kind of flowing out there, it is hard to gauge exactly where things are going to go, it could be a big wave election where the intensity is so far on the republican s favor that, you know, it is like a sea wave. but, we also have at the end here, we, keep in mind, a l