US Rep. Lisa McClain gestures before U.S. Vice President JD Vance delivers remarks at a MAGA Inc. event in Sterling Heights, Michigan, US., August 31, 2026. REUTERS/Jeff Kowalsky
Republican leaders keep bragging that they're running the most productive Congress in generations, and conservative writer Bill Kristol gave them a searing reminder that the Congress they keep invoking got obliterated at the ballot box.
In a new analysis for The Bulwark, Kristol called out House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-MI) for touting the 119th Congress as the most productive since 1949. McClain explicitly likened it to the 80th Congress, led by Speaker Joseph Martin.
That 80th Congress was famously remembered as the "Do Nothing" Congress, the label President Harry Truman branded onto it before voters swept Republicans out of power in both chambers in his stunning 1948 upset.
"It’s kind of amazing that the Republican leadership in the 119th Congress wants to compare itself to the 80th Congress. Democrats should certainly thank them for doing so," Kristol wrote.
The comparison surfaced the same week Johnson suffered a meltdown over Trump's deeply unpopular war with Iran. Pressed Tuesday by CNN's Manu Raju about his blown predictions that the war would end fast and barely move gas prices, Johnson snapped, "Manu, that is one of the stupidest questions you've ever asked," insisting he has "nothing to do with the prosecution of the war across the globe."
That clash came in the war's sixth month, with pump prices still above $4 a gallon and analysts warning of steep midterm fallout for Republicans.