Americans Express Their Disapproval of Conservative Congress
September 13th, 2011Now 82 Percent Disapprove
by Glynn Wilson
The American public’s approval of the job Congress is doing stands at only 15 percent, up just slightly from the record-tying low of 13 percent recorded in August, while disapproval stands at 82 percent compared with 84 percent last month, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject.
These results, which do not bode well for the tea party Republicans (see more analysis below), are based on interviews conducted in a Sept. 8-11 survey as President Barack Obama urged Congress to pass his newly announced major jobs plan legislation and amid news coverage of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 “terrorist” attacks.
Gallup has recorded only three measures lower than this month’s rating of 15 percent, although Americans have never responded very positively when asked to rate Congress, according to Gallup’s analysis.
The average approval rating since Gallup first began asking Americans to rate Congress in 1974 is 34 percent. Congressional job approval has generally drifted downward since it reached 39 percent in March 2009, shortly after President Obama took office. The average congressional job approval rating for 2010 was 19 percent.
Last month’s 13 percent approval tied the record low from December 2010. The highest congressional job approval rating measured by Gallup came in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, with a single reading of 84 percent in October 2001.
“Americans are not very positive in their ratings of most things associated with the federal government these days,” Gallup says.
A recent update on Americans’ images of 25 business and industry sectors found the federal government dead last on the list, with 17 percent of Americans saying their image of the federal government was positive and 63 percent saying it was negative.
A number of measures in the Sept. 8-11 poll — to be reported in the days ahead — also find the public’s trust and confidence in the government and legislative branch to be very low, including the finding that 81 percent of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the way the nation is being governed.
Democrats’ Approval of Congress Drops
Democrats have become less positive in their ratings of Congress in the last two months, from 24 percent approval in July to 15 percent in August to 13 percent this month.
“As a result, the relative partisan landscape has changed,” according to Gallup. “Whereas Democrats gave Congress the highest approval ratings from April through July, Republicans are now the most positive, with Democrats and independents less so.”
Rank-and-file Democrats may be downgrading their ratings of Congress because of their perceptions of the way in which the GOP-controlled House failed to work toward a compromise with Obama and Democratic leaders on the debt ceiling.
Implications
It is perhaps not surprising to find that most Americans continue to disapprove of the job being done by the men and women they elect to represent them in Congress, given that Americans’ confidence in the economy and overall satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S. are very low.
The highly partisan and rancorous debate over raising the debt ceiling no doubt contributed to August’s all-time-low congressional job approval rating.
“The only silver lining for Congress in the September update is that congressional approval has not fallen to a new all-time low,” Gallup says.
Much is on Congress’ plate at the moment, including consideration of a possible vote on parts of President Obama’s jobs plan and the ongoing work of the congressional “super-committee” attempting to find ways to cut the federal budget. The future trajectory of congressional job approval ratings may depend on how both of these work out, the direction of the economy, and whether or not Congress is seen in the months ahead as being able to negotiate and compromise rather than contentiously argue.
Further Analysis
While Gallup totally avoids mentioning the tea party in its straight reporting on Congressional job approval, it is clear from my reading of the numbers that a majority of the American public are not onboard with the anti-government, anti-tax, anti-solution sentiment of the tea party Republicans now in control of the House.
A new AP/Roper poll shows a “deep contempt for Congress,” according to the Associated Press.
An earlier survey from last week showed the tea party clearly losing support, along with Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who is increasingly unpopular.
“People are warming to the idea of not just cutting spending but also raising taxes,” according to the AP.
Survey Methods
Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Sept. 8-11, 2011, with a random sample of 1,017 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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