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Steve Benen draws a contrast today between an activist president who’s at least trying to get things done, and a dysfunctional Congress than can’t even make the attempt:

Remember the VA crisis? Lawmakers quickly approved a reform bill, which now appears likely to fail because of House Republicans’ reluctance to compromise. Remember the plan to address the border crisis? The plan was for Congress to act before taking August off, but that now appears unlikely, too. The effort to extend unemployment benefits is dead. So is raising the minimum wage. So is ENDA. No one even talks about gun background checks anymore. The Highway Trust Fund will probably benefit from a stopgap measure, but even this hardly represents real governing.

Unfortunately, I think Republicans would call this a big win. Getting things done doesn’t really do them any good at the ballot box. Making the government appear impotent and incompetent does. So that’s the path they’ve chosen.