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Most of us complain about Congress. We say it's a place that doesn't reflect us; they don't listen to us. Actually, Congress well reflects the American people. It gives us exactly what we ask for.

The worst excesses of the Congress of the 1980s pale in comparison with what is going on in Washington today.

I mean, it's pretty disillusioning for all of us right now, and we feel pretty helpless when Congress, their approval rating is thirteen percent, and across the board, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, you sort of want to walk in and fire everybody.

I have been in Congress for more than a half century. I have lived through times of fear and times of hope. Of despair and of achievement. I have seen our government at its best, but today I fear that we see our government at its worst.

In the year of our Lord 2010, the voters of the United States elected the worst Congress in the history of the Republic. There have been Congresses more dilatory. There have been Congresses more irresponsible, though not many of them.

I enjoyed my stay in the Congress. Most people do not. And too many people who have been elected really don't understand the nature of government.

One of my big beliefs about Washington is that we highly overstate the power of individuals and highly underrate seeing Washington as a system, in general, but, in particular, we highly underrate the power of Congress.

I've had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should. There is much too much partisanship and not enough progress.

Americans are fed up with how things are going in the country right now. They see more job losses, rising debt and plummeting home sales. They feel let down by a government that passes one 2,000-page, trillion-dollar law after another instead of focusing on addressing the problems Americans worry about every day.

Many Americans, we know, are horrified by the posture of their government but seem to be helpless.