Making The Grade: The Congressional Report Card

Voters handed Congress back to Democrats last November with a mandate for change: change the course in Iraq, clean out the ethics "swamp" and end partisan arm wrestling. But accomplishing all that is tricky when the opposition party still controls the White House. So far this year, President George W. Bush has vetoed war-funding legislation that included a timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq and federal funding for stem-cell research--and he has issued veto threats for 77 other bills.

The result is that Congress appears as tied in knots as usual. Its approval ratings hovered around 18% in a mid-August Gallup poll,...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!