Senator Barbara Mikulski is quoted in this Politico story asking a rhetorical question about Congress’ efforts to get spending resolved for the current fiscal year. “What are they doing? Just what are they doing?”

Having failed to put together a budget for the current fiscal year, or to pass any spending bills, Congress passed a “continuing resolution” at the beginning of October. That was going to keep the government running until November 18th, and during that period Congress would come up with the spending plan to take it through the rest of the year.

You see, Congress couldn’t do this work over the summer like it’s supposed to. But it was magically going to pull itself together to do the work here in the fall.

Or maybe not.

“Any hope of Congress avoiding another stopgap spending resolution on Nov. 18 has all but vanished,” says the Politico article. Even passing appropriations bills three-at-a-time as the Senate tried to do this week is not working.

The bill that leaders had hoped to get through the Senate was not done when senators left for a week away from Washington on Friday.

This work was supposed to be done by mid-summer. So: What are they doing? Just what are they doing?

They’re reading the political cues you’re sending them. If voters don’t punish failures like this, there’s no reason to get off the dime.