'Congress is in a coma.' Former lawmakers sound alarm on health of the House

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NPR

December 21, 2025 5:00 AM ET


Congress is wrapping up the year in the shadow of the longest government shutdown and with a growing reputation as the least productive in modern history.

"Congress is in a coma. It has a pulse, but not many brainwaves," said former Rep. Jim Cooper, a Democrat who represented Tennessee for 32 years. "It's hard to tell that it's even alive as an institution."

A record number of lawmakers are calling it quits ahead of the midterm elections next year and are running for the Capitol exits, pursuing different offices or retiring from political life altogether. While there's a temptation to look at a diminished House as a symptom of the first year of the second Trump administration, former members told NPR that legislative stagnation and low morale have been building for quite some time.

Barbara Comstock, a Virginia Republican who serves as president of the Association of Former Members of Congress, said the issues are growing deeper. "We've done studies showing the reason a lot of people are leaving is because it's not functional, because of death threats, because they're not getting anything done," she said in an interview.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/12/21/g-s1-101741/congress-is-in-a-coma-former-lawmakers-sound-alarm-on-health-of-the-house

[Ford_Prefect]

1. Congress IS NOT IN A COMA!!! The GOP part is failing to exercise their responsibility to act on behalf of our country.

Last edited Sun Dec 21, 2025, 08:39 PM - Edit history (1)

They are treating it like a club membership rather than a public trust. They claim they are afraid of DJT but I doubt that all of them are. Speaker Johnson has derailed the functions of Congress, but that is not the preference of a number of GOP members who would rather get something done for the folks in their district or the country. Speaker Johnson is as inept at his job as any hand picked Trump administrator. He only knows how to say NO, and then run away to hide from the outcome of that NO!

[bucolic_frolic]

2. How can you get anything done when SCOTUS invalidates the last 100 years

and parts of the Constitution?

[slightlv]

3. How can you get anything done when your first instinct

is to run and hide from the office at the first whiff of an idea?

[MLWR]

4. When the majority of the House of Representatives is made up of

lazy; intellectually challenged; spineless, gutless, lily-livered, yellow-bellied, chickenshit, cowardly, self-absorbed creatures, interested ONLY in keeping their own power and making money rather than representing their constituents needs and interests, you will get a "congress in a coma."

[flashman13]

6. That is a fairly comprehensive description of the Republican caucus.

The only thing I would add is that the vast majority really are low IQ types.

[happy feet]

5. Once again, lumpung in Dems w the do nothing Repubs

At the same time they complain about the ACA legislation among others. Can't fix a problem you won't properly name.

[Godot51]

7. 1979

In 1979 President Carter referred to a "malaise" in the U.S.

Most people, especially republicans and conservatives, brushed this off ("we're the greatest country that ever existed in the history of time and the universe!&quot and, of course, made fun of his word choice.

The "media" of the time followed these republican opinions.

Ironically, a year later, the true malaise began with the election of the braindead puppet, st. ronnie raygun.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Congress needs a man or woman Speaker of the House, not a boy or girl, much less a baby Johnson.

Thanks for the thread BumRushDaShow

[J_William_Ryan]

9. "...and with a growing reputation as the least productive in modern history."

Of course, you’ll have idiots on the right saying a do-nothing Republican House is ‘good.’