After starting out like a hare, the 111th Congress is loping toward sine die (adjournment) like a tortoise. Although they’re scheduled to come back to Washington next week for one more month of work, we doubt they’ll make it that long. Unfortunately, it won’t be because of a new found efficiency that lets them get all their work done. Rather, it is likely they’ll quickly flee Washington to run back home and attempt to convince voters to send them back to Washington in spite of the anti-incumbent atmosphere.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, (and the polls don’t indicate much love for any of them at this point) this Congress has been far from do-nothing. Within the first month, an omnibus spending bill funding government for fiscal year 2009 came through with a $787 billion stimulus fast on its heels. This was later followed by health care legislation and financial sector reform. In between they squeezed in fiscal year 2010 spending bills, student loan reforms, and cash for clunkers, just to name a few.

But as lawmakers make their way back to Capitol Hill there are only about a dozen legislatin’ days before the ball drops on the start of fiscal year 2011. Yet there are precisely zero annual spending bills signed into law. In fact the House has passed only two of the twelve spending bills, while the Senate hasn’t been able to agree on any.

Maybe Congress will get one or two bills to the President’s desk before splitting town, leaving the rest for a post-election lame duck session. But peeking at the polling, there is more than a decent chance that the majority will shift, or come really close to shifting, in one or both houses. This means the complexion of the lame duck could be radically different than the Congress that will take office in January.

Ironically, taxpayers may find themselves in a spot very similar to the one they were in after the 2006 elections. Back then, the then-Republican majority got only two spending bills done before losing at the ballot box. Instead of finishing their constitutionally mandated job after the election, however, they decided they would leave the sausage making to the next guys. Fiscal year 2007 spending wasn’t finalized until February when the new Congress finally threw up their hands and passed a year-long continuing resolution funding agencies at the previous year’s levels. Leaving a mess for the next Congress to clean up was irresponsible then and it will be irresponsible this year, too.

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And then there are the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that are expiring December 31st. If Congress does anything with this before the election, it will likely be to just kick the can down the road by extending the cuts for two years. This will virtually guarantee that they resurface yet again in the midst of an election year, but this time one heightened even more by the 2012 Presidential election.

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Instead of treading legislative water for a few weeks, Congress needs to step up and get as much of their work done as possible. Whatever its make-up, the 112th Congress shouldn’t have to take care of old business. Considering the flagging recovery, continued operations in Afghanistan, and the debt and deficit commission’s recommendations due out in December, they are going to have a lot to deal with right away.

Anything that gets done in a lame duck can get done before the election. So, Congress, hop to it.

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