Congressional approval sinks to single digits
The latest Gallup poll confirms what numerous other outlets have been reporting for the last month: Congressional approval is at an all-time low.
According to the new Gallup poll, only nine percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing in Washington. That is the lowest number Gallup has recorded in its nearly 40-year history.
Taken between the 7th and 10th of November, the new poll indicates a united front among Americans from all political parties in their disapproval.
“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,” Gallup said.
During the government shutdown, many polls found opinions of Congress dipping into uncharted territory, but Gallup’s numbers didn’t sink below 10 percent, a number that the firm recorded twice in 2012 and represented the previous all-time low.
Still, although numbers didn’t dip further during the shutdown, Gallup’s analysis suggests that public reaction to the crisis continues to inform American opinion of Congress.
“The government shutdown in October clearly didn't help Congress' image, and it appears that the impact of that incident may linger, given the record-low approval this month,” Gallup said.
In October, a Washington Post/ABC News poll found the legislative branch with 12 percent approval, while an Associated Press/GFK poll produced a stunning five percent approval rating.
The most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, meanwhile, found that 63 percent of Americans would vote to replace their own member of Congress.
Americans don’t just disapprove of Congress, however. The latest poll from Quinnipiac University showed that only 39 percent of Americans approve of President Obama’s performance, his lowest number since coming into office. More troubling for Obama is that Americans are divided over whether he “knowingly deceived” the public when claiming they’d be able to keep their health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act.
