While watching Joe Scarborough recently, I saw a clip in which a prominent supporter of Barack Obama was totally unable to name any of his legislative accomplishments. This and other incidents like it raise questions about Obama's experience and effectiveness as a politician. In hopes of finding answers, I looked at the GovTrack website to compare Clinton and Obama's legislative records.
It is true that Obama has only sponsored 1 passed bill in his 2+ years in the Senate. However, Senator Clinton has only sponsored 2 successfully enacted bills in her 7 years in the Senate. McCain has a somewhat better track record, sponsoring 12 successfull pieces of legislation in his 10 years as a Senator. However, it should be noted that McCain was a member of the party in power for the majority of those ten years; while Obama and Clinton's party has only held the majority for under 1 year, much of which they spent on the campaign trail.
Obama's most recently sponsored bills include:
An amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require reporting relating to bundled contributions made by those other than lobbyists.
The Positive Behavior For Effective Schools Act; which supports more specialized teaching for individual schoolchildren.
The Improving Standards for Nutrition and Physical Education in Schools Act of 2007
A concurrent resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Sickle Cell Awareness Month; which doesn't do much
and The Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act of 2007; which closes a loophole in the tax code and punishes people who falsely report their employees as independent contractors.
Hillary Clinton's most recently sponsored bills include:
The American Home Ownership Preservation Act of 2007, which increases regulation of mortgage brokers
The Coordinated Environmental Public Health Network Act of 2007, which sets up government networks to "monitor, investigate, respond to, research and prevent...certain chronic diseases and relevant environmental and other risk factors."
The Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act, which reduces the amount of time airline flight crews must work to get leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.
The Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Commemoration Act, which would pay about $300,000,000 of the taxpayers money to establish a committee to plan commemorative festivities for the anniversaries of a series of milestones in the history of upstate NY.
and The Neighborhood Reclamation and Revitalization Act of 2007, which throws alot of money at HUD to demolish vacant houses.
McCain's recently sponsored bills include:
The Walnut Canyon Study Act of 2007, which authorizes appropriations for the federal government to study land adjacent to Walnut Canyon National Monument.
The Saffron Revolution Support Act of 2007, which would increase sanctions on the Burmese government.
The Arizona National Scenic Trail Act of 2007, which would change the designation of a hiking trail in McCain's home state
The Defense Acquisition Reform Act of 2007, which would reform the purchasing policies of the DOD
and The Indian Arts and Crafts Amendment Act of 2007, which would authorize federal law enforcement to investigate the false advertising of art as being produced by Indians.
Oddly enough, despite claims that Obama is extremely liberal, the GovTrack site shows him with a more moderate voting record than Clinton.
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