Members of congress spend more than a quarter of their time taunting each other

If you were wondering why very little ever gets done in congress then consider this: the members (from both sides of the political fence) spend around 27% of their time taunting each other. In any other job such inefficiency would most likely result in a well-deserved firing.

Professor Gary King of Harvard University decided to look into exactly how sitting politicians spent their time and came to the 27% figure after using a computer program to analyze congress members’ writings.

Prof. King shared his thoughts with the Washington Post:

It’s jarring and surprising and probably counterproductive if we want Congress’s members to trust one another enough to make deals.

[Washington Post via Neatorama]