Imagine There's No Congress...

"[...]In Washington alone, there are hundreds of lawmakers, thousands of congressional staffers, and more than ten thousand lobbyists. Could society possibly be worse off if not one of them had showed up for work over the past four years?
"As politician Al Smith liked to say, let's look at the record. Suppose Congress had not done the following:

• --Blocked Bush Administration attempts to head off the housing crisis
• --Approved the Federal Reserve Bank's monetary policies...
• --Raised the minimum wage...
• --Funded a "one-time" stimulus payment...
• --Passed "emergency" TARP legislation as the 2008 Democrat October surprise...
• --Flushed the 2009 economic "stimulus" funds down the toilet...
• --Gave away taxpayer cash for "clunkers"...
• --Nationalized Americans' health care...  
•  [ANSWERS HERE: The Legislative Branch has Become Poison Oak-By Randy Fardal]

"[...] Among the powers granted to it by Article I of the US Constitution, Congress is required to do just one thing every year: pass a federal budget. Yes, the legislative branch also must handle extraordinary activities, such as ratifying treaties, amending the Constitution, and declaring war, but those occur only a handful of times per century. And yes, it also is required to produce legislation, but the Constitution specifies no minimum number of laws it must pass every session, and the framers probably thought the optimal number was zero.

However, despite its constitutional mandate, Congress did not pass a budget this year, because passing one would have harmed Democrats' chances of getting reelected. As a taxpayer, what does that tell you?[...]" (emphases mine)

(December 22, 2010,The Legislative Branch has Become Poison Oak-By Randy Fardal, American Thinker)