Measured by volume, legislative activity hides a shift away from redistributive substance

Evidence

Even if the volume of legislative activity looks comparable, the substance tends to shift: Policy efforts are more likely to focus on routine functions, rather than ambitious, substantive action. This kind of limited policymaking stops short of outright paralysis, but it also fails to deliver the transformative change needed to challenge deeply rooted inequalities that only benefit the wealthy. — Nathan Kelly and Jana Morgan, How US Policymaking Institutions…, 280

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to any prior reading on agenda-setting and ‘do-nothing’ Congress measures — volume as a misleading proxy for output.