WASHINGTON – An hour before members of congress made their way to the exits for a five-week recess, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi lambasted the Republican-controlled body for not only doing nothing, but making things worse.
“How do we explain to the American people that we’re going into an August recess and … we still have no jobs bill, we have no budget bill, and we have the threat of shutting down government and not raising the debt ceiling without repealing the Affordable Care Act,” the California Democrat said at a press conference Friday morning.
The fiscal year comes to an end on September 30, along with the continuing resolution that is currently funding the government. As of yet, congress has reached no deal to continue funding the government past that date. And the House will be in session for only nine more days before that deadline.
“It was a do-nothing [congress], and now it is gone to something worse,” Pelosi said. “It is an aimless congress that is falling into chaos: the ‘make matters worse’ congress. We should not leave until we address the challenges that we face.”
Speaker of the House John Boehner said Thursday that congress would have time when it returned to deal with the pressing fiscal matters. But Pelosi sounded skeptical.
“It’s one thing to leave having a plan in place to address the problems, or to have addressed it,” she said. “And usually what you try to do whether you’re studying for an exam at school, or the semester’s coming to an end and you have your papers, you get your work done in a timely fashion.
“If their work that they want to get done is nothing, then they’re right on schedule,” she said.