Republicans Failed to Act on 2010's Conservative Mandate

Of course, 1814 could be the worst since the White House and the Capitol were actually burned; however, 2011 still rates as a pretty bad year.

The Republicans took over Congress in early January with a lot of promise and nothing has happened. House Speaker John Boehner was given one of the greatest mandates in political history and he just blew it.

I have been waiting for a conservative congressman to stand up and ask Boehner, "If you are not going to use the congressional majority, could I borrow it for a while?"

[Check out 2011: The Year in Cartoons]

Because Republicans control only the House of Representatives and not the Senate, a complete conservative agenda could not have been advanced, but we could have made some progress. The problem with the Republican leadership in Congress is they believe compromise is the goal. When compromise is your goal, surrender is always your first option.

One of the reasons this has been such a bad year is we have seen nothing but surrender from the GOP leadership this year on almost every issue. Finally, we are seeing some spine shown by Republicans on the payroll tax issue.

[Read the U.S. News debate on the payroll tax cut.]

It is too little, too late.

Will 2012 be any better? I doubt it. The only good news will be continued gridlock. People complain about gridlock being bad. Gridlock is actually quite good, if it kills bad laws that might otherwise get enacted.

• See the Best Pictures of 2011
• See pictures of notable deaths of 2011
• See the top 5 political gaffes of 2011.

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Congress,

politics,

government