What to expect from Congress’s lame-duck session

Ray bradbury, an American science-fiction writer, has a short story called “The Last Night of the World” about a husband and wife on the last night of existence. It is an unforgettable anticlimax. Rather than satisfy any unfulfilled wishes, the couple choose to spend a quiet night in just like any other—even doing the washing-up before getting cosily to bed. Congress does the opposite. It is only when opportunities are closing, when awful consequences are nigh, that the frantic dash to do things begins.