Politics

Almost nobody likes Congress

Alexis Levinson Political Reporter
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The circle of “blood relatives and paid staffers” is thinning: Congress’s public approval rating has sunk to the single digits.

According to Gallup, a mere nine percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing. Not only is that number abysmally low for a body that is supposed to be representing the people, but it is the single lowest approval rating of Congress that Gallup has registered in its 39 years of polling on the issue.

The previous record was set in 2012, when Congress’s approval rating dropped to 10 percent twice over the course of the year.

The disapproval brings together people on all sides of the political spectrum: Only nine percent of Republicans approve of the way Congress is handling its job, compared to eight percent of independents, and 10 percent of Democrats.

To be fair, Congress was never going to win any popularity contests. The average approval rating since 1974, according to Gallup’s polling, is a mere 33 percent. In this time of gridlock, things have not improved. But the decline has been precipitous over the past two months. In September, Congress still boasted a whopping 19 percent approval rating. In October, as the government shutdown raged on, that number fell sharply to 11 percent, and it has continued to fall.

Gallup surveyed 1039 adults living in the United States using telephone interviews conducted Nov. 7 through Nov. 10.

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