You hate Congress

If you want to be part of a popular team, you ought to steer clear of Congress. Even in the best of times, that group isn’t spoken of with reverence.
But the current bunch is a record-setter.

Gallup just released the results of its December poll on America’s approval rating of Congress. It was 11 percent. That puts the yearly average at 17 percent, which is the lowest since Gallup began tracking the question in 1974. The 17 percent was just two points lower than last year’s 19 percent.
That makes this year particularly unusual. Last year, voters swept many members of Congress from office, turning the House over to Republicans. Generally, that leads to a higher approval rating the next year. After a similar turnover in 1994, the approval rating went from the mid-20s to the mid-30s. Apparently, the nation still is in an even sourer mood in 2011 than it was when it threw the bums out in 2010.
It isn’t hard to find reasons why this might be. The “supercommittee” utterly failed to come up with a plan to curb deficit spending. Standard & Poor’s downgraded the nation’s credit rating based on runaway debt. Every little budgetary matter seems to turn into an ideological slugfest. Even when both parties seem to agree, as with the matter of extending the payroll tax cut, the issue gets bogged down over ancillary issues.
Most importantly, though, the economy continues to drag. If you look at Gallup’s historical chart, you’ll see that previous lows came during the Jimmy Carter days of stagflation and the 1992 recession that led to George H.W. Bush’s electoral demise.
In the past, voters have been quick to express disapproval with Congress in general while still supporting their own representatives. We’ll have to wait until next November to see whether the low ratings translate into another wholesale slaughter in the voting booth.
Meanwhile, you may be wondering as I am – who are the 13 percent who think Congress is doing great?