Recall the mandate to move to the right of center that our Congress received in the 2010 elections, when the people transferred 63 seats in the House of Representative and 6 in the Senate from the Democrats to the Republicans—a majority of those transfers to Tea Party Republicans, hence the mandate to move to the right.  Despite that outcome, though, the Senate remained under the control of the Democrats.  What has the Senate done in response to those instructions from its bosses?  The figure below, from The Wall Street Journal, tells the tale of the Progressives’ insubordination.

This illustrates the work the House has done these last two years in response to those instructions and the (not insignificant) numbers of House Democrats who actively supported that work.

On top of this dereliction, the Senate has refused to do its own work:

[T]he Senate failed to pass any budget in 2012. Or 2011. Or 2010. …more than 1,200 days.

And

The Senate also failed in 2010 and 2012 to pass a single appropriations bill.  …that hadn’t happened before in the 150-year history of the current spending process.  This year the Senate even failed to enact a national defense authorization bill, which almost never happens.

Senate Progressives have announced that they’ll continue their refusal to perform in 2013 [emphasis in original]:

Chuck Schumer (D, NY) warned that Democrats will stop any attempt at bipartisan tax reform next year, calling the idea “obsolete.”

We can’t afford even two more years of this Progressive refusal to perform, much less four more years of an incumbent President’s arrogance.