Congressional Approval Sinks to Record Low

[bananas]

Source: Gallup

Americans' approval of the way Congress is handling its job has dropped to 9%, the lowest in Gallup's 39-year history of asking the question. The previous low point was 10%, registered twice in 2012.



These results are from a Gallup poll conducted Nov. 7-10.

Congress approval fell to 11% in October, during the U.S. government shutdown. Although the shutdown is now history, Americans' views of Congress have not recovered, but instead have edged lower. By contrast, Americans' confidence in the economy has begun to improve in the last several weeks. The continuing depression in Americans' views of Congress has occurred even though the troubles with the rollout of President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act are now dominating U.S. political news.

Public displeasure with Congress is equally rampant across political groups, with Republicans (9%), independents (8%), and Democrats (10%) giving the institution similarly low approval ratings.

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Read more: http://www.gallup.com/poll/165809/congressional-approval-sinks-record-low.aspx

[Journeyman]

1. Perhaps Congressional approval is tanking, even though the ACA troubles dominate the news. . .

because the American people are more interested in seeing Congress do what it can to make our laws work rather than waste their time and effort looking for scapegoats and other chimera.

[Deep13]

2. Is that mathamatically possible? nt

[PSPS]

3. Not this again

For decades, this has been considered a "story." But, as long as people think favorably of their own representative, nothing will change. And that's always the case: Congressional approval low, but individual representative's approval within their own district is high.

[Ace Acme]

5. People think favorably of their respresentatives

... because their news media pump them up -- for instance reporting when the reps make public-pleasing remarks, and failing to report contradictions between the reps' remarks and the reps' voting records.

My own congressional rep has a guaranteed vote of 70% no matter what and doesn't even bother to campaign beyond mailing out a few glossy postcards, because actual campaigning might inspire some actual discussion of actual issues and bring a cloud of controversy to the mantle of warm fuzzies.

News media are highly motivated to pump up the PTB for the simple reason that they are in business to deliver the eyeballs of confident, optimistic consumers to the advertisements, and actual reporting of the facts might depress confidence such that the consumers may become reluctant to go into debt to buy things they don't need. That would be bad for business all around.

[grilled onions]

4. Pity They Don't Get Paid For What They Are Worth...

instead of getting paid for what they THINK they are worth!