Congress Is Still Down in the Polls

The latest Public Policy Polling study has America laughing about how little liked our Congress is, falling less favorable, according to data, than lice, root canals and even the much ridiculed soft-rock band, Nickelback. Although these results are fairly hilarious, there is a statement being made here, and it indicates the true feelings of the American public (whether or not they are glazed in comedy). 

Tom Jensen of PPP  cites the reason for these odd comparisons to be the following: “We hear all the time ‘Congress has a 9% approval rating,’ and those polls are fine, but it’s kind of hard to put them into terms of understanding in your everyday life.”

So now we know: Congress only has a 9% favorability rating, lower than the favorability of even colonoscopies in this country. For real. That seems pretty dismal a statistic at the beginning of this new year, regardless of how common low numbers such as these may be in recent years. With Democrats in control of the Senate and Republicans of the House, the blame for this overwhelming dissatisfaction falls squarely on the shoulders of all our elected officials, despite the fact that Senate Democrats are the ones doing nothing.

One easy way for Congress to remedy their failure in the eyes of the American people is to get to work on the number one issue on the minds of voters: the deficit. Despite the fact that this is a high priority for Americans, Congress continues to skirt around the matter rather than getting down to the business of fixing it. In the past few years we have applied band-aid after band-aid to the enormous national spending problem, all the while applying no real solution. We raised the debt ceiling, and now we have caved and raised taxes. These are not remedies, and even though this has been proven time and again, Congress continues to simply ignore the obvious resolution: cut government spending to reduce the deficit.

This epidemic of turning a blind eye to an evident answer and to the real root of America’s problems can be summarized in Obama’s statement earlier this week: “We don’t have a spending problem.”

Perhaps the reason for the staggeringly low approval rating is simple:  Congress is not tackling the most important issue on the mind of its constituents, and therefore is not doing its job. But don’t worry. Americans view Congress more favorably than Ebola virus and Fidel Castro. So at least there’s that. 

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