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Congress Approval Rating Matches
Historical Low
Jeffrey M. Jones
Gallup
Tuesday Aug 21, 2007
PRINCETON, NJ -- A new Gallup Poll finds Congress' approval
rating the lowest it has been since Gallup first tracked public
opinion of Congress with this measure in 1974. Just 18% of Americans
approve of the job Congress is doing, while 76% disapprove, according
to the August 13-16, 2007, Gallup Poll.
That 18% job approval rating matches the low recorded in March
1992, when a check-bouncing scandal was one of several scandals
besetting Congress, leading many states to pass term limits measures
for U.S. representatives (which the Supreme Court later declared
unconstitutional). Congress had a similarly low 19% approval rating
during the energy crisis in the summer of 1979.
Americans' evaluations of the job Congress is doing are usually
not that positive -- the vast majority of historical approval
ratings have been below 50%. The high point was 84% approval one
month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when Americans rallied
behind the federal government. Since then, Congress' approval
ratings have generally exhibited the same downward trajectory
seen in those for President George W. Bush. Currently, 32% of
Americans approve of the job Bush is doing as president, a far
cry from the record-high 90% he received in September 2001. Bush's
current job approval rating is just three percentage points above
his lowest.
(Article continues below)
There was a slight interruption in the downward trend in congressional
approval ratings at the beginning of this year when party control
changed hands from the Republicans to the Democrats following
last fall's midterm elections. In January 2007, 35% of Americans
approved of Congress, a significant increase from the 21% who
approved of Congress in December 2006. That December rating tied
the lowest in the 12 years the Republicans controlled Congress
from 1995 to 2006.
But that "honeymoon" period for the new Democratically
controlled Congress was brief, as its job ratings dropped below
30% in March 2007 and have now fallen below where they were just
before the Democrats took over.
Frustration with Congress spans the political spectrum. There
are only minor (but not statistically meaningful) differences
in the approval ratings Democrats (21%), Republicans (18%), and
independents (17%) give to Congress. Typically, partisans view
Congress much more positively when their party is in control of
the institution, so the fact that Democrats' ratings are not materially
better than Republicans' is notable.
The nine-point drop in Congress' job approval rating from last
month to this month has come exclusively from Democrats and independents,
with Democrats' ratings dropping 11 points (from 32% to 21%) and
independents' ratings dropping 13 points (from 30% to 17%). Republicans'
18% approval rating is unchanged from last month.
The decline in congressional job approval could merely reflect
the cessation of any public good will it engendered when the new
leadership arrived in January, since the current 18% rating is
similar to what it was in December 2006 (21%).
But, it could also reflect disappointment with the new Congress'
performance (especially among Democrats) and economic unease.
Americans elected the Democrats as the majority party in Congress
in November 2006's midterm election in large part due to frustration
with the Iraq war and an ineffective and scandal-plagued Republican-led
Congress. But any hopes that the elections would lead to change
have not been realized as Democrats' repeated attempts to force
a change in Iraq war policy have been largely unsuccessful due
to presidential vetoes, disagreements within their own party,
and the inability to attract Republican support for their policy
proposals. Also, many of the Democratic leadership's domestic
agenda items have not become law even though some have passed
one or both houses of Congress.
As the trend in congressional approval makes clear, ratings of
Congress usually suffer during times of economic uncertainty,
as during the late 1970s and early 1990s. While Americans' ratings
of current economic conditions are not near historical lows, there
is a great deal of concern about the direction in which the economy
is headed. The latest poll finds a record 72% of Americans saying
the economy is "getting worse."
Survey Methods
These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly
selected national sample of 1,019 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted
August 13-16, 2007. For results based on this sample, one can
say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to
sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points.
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical
difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias
into the findings of public opinion polls.
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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