Americans downgrade Congress to historic low 13% job approval

Only 13 percent of Americans approve of Congress, tied for the worst on record, according to a Gallup Poll conducted over the weekend. Eighty-four percent of Americans disapprove, the poll found. That figure is a record high.


The last time Congress rated only 13 percent approval was in December 2010, during last year’s lame duck session.


The lame congressional approval ratings are slightly lower among independents, reaching 9 percent, compared to 15 percent among Democrats and 17 percent among Republicans. The 9 percent approval rating for independents is the lowest since Gallup began measuring congressional approval in 1974.


Speaking of which, Obama and Joe Biden are both out of town too. Joe is in Mongolia. No, seriously. What harm could he do over there?


The president is taking a bus across parts of Iowa and Minnesota and Illinois this week, not for political purposes, you understand, but to explain again how America needs more jobs and creating them is still his top priority.


Gallup reported earlier this week that the Democratic chief executive's job approval had fallen to 39%, its lowest level since he took office 14 trillion seconds ago. No, it only seems that long. Obama's really been living in the White House for 938 days and he still hasn't come up with his own debt reduction plan.


More than two-out-of-three Americans believe the country is on the wrong track for some reason.


This new Gallup Poll on Congress is the first rating since members spent so many rancorous weeks concocting that budget/deficit deal that so impressed the Standard & Poor's credit agency it dropped the federal government's rating to AA+ with a negative outlook.


The previous time Gallup measured Congress' job was early July when 18% of Americans approved. Gallup has only been rating Congress for 37 years. The average approval in that time was 34%. But that number has been dropping in recent years.


Republicans were kind of thinking that with Democrats having to defend 23 of the 33 Senate seats up for election next year, the GOP had a good chance of taking control of that body after having captured the House in last fall's historic midterm turnover.


But they might want to be careful counting their gavels too soon. Americans' disapproval of Congress is a broad-based bipartisan sentiment, meaning any incumbents in either chamber could be in trouble come Nov. 6, 2012.


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