These poll numbers were released earlier today by Rasmussen Reports -- "an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information."
Congressional Performance
Just 8% Approve of Job Congress Is Doing
Wendesday, June 22, 2011
Voter approval of Congress' job performance has now fallen to a near five-year low.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only eight percent (8%) of Likely U.S. Voters think Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Fifty-two percent (52%) rate Congress' performance as poor. (To see survey question wording, click here .)
From January 2007 through December 2010, with Democrats in control of both the House and Senate, the legislature earned good or excellent marks ranging from nine percent (9%) to 26%, although generally their rankings were in the low teens for most of this period. This trend continued through the early months of this year after Republicans regained control of the House, but Congress' positive ratings fell to nine percent (9%) in April and May.
Since January 2007, poor marks for Congress have ranged from a low of 35% in early February 2007 to a high of 71% in February of last year. Since then, until the GOP takeover of the House, those giving Congress poor grades have generally fallen in the high 50s and low 60s. This past February, however, just 42% felt that way, but Congress' negatives have risen since then.
Voters are evenly divided this month when asked if most members of Congress are corrupt: 39% say yes; 38% say no, while 23% are undecided. The view that most congressmen are corrupt has ranged from 36% to 45% since January of last year.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on June 20-21, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC . See methodology .
Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters do not believe Congress has passed any legislation that will significantly improve the quality of life, a finding that has shown little change for several years now. Thirteen percent (13%) disagree. Twenty-four percent (24%) are not sure.
But only 47% think passing good legislation is a more important role for Congress than preventing bad legislation from becoming law. Nearly as many (43%) feel blocking poor legislation should be Congress' main goal. These figures have changed little since early August of last year.
An overwhelming majority (81%) believe most members of Congress are more interested in their own careers than helping people. Only eight percent (8%) think most in Congress are more concerned with helping people. This is consistent with findings since late 2009.
Democrats are slightly more positive about the job Congress is doing than Republicans and voters not affiliated with either political party. Most Democrats (56%) think it's more important for Congress to pass good laws than stop bad ones, but most Republicans (51%) feel it's more important to stop bad laws. Unaffiliated voters are almost evenly divided.
Seventy-three percent (73%) of the Political Class say passing good laws is more important. Fifty percent (50%) of Mainstream voters disagree.
Mainstream voters are twice as likely as those in the Political Class to rate Congress' overall performance as poor.
For the first time, voters feel the agenda of congressional Republicans is nearly as extreme as that of Democrats in Congress.
In early January, voters trusted Republicans more than Democrats on all 10 important voting issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports . Now, however, voters trust Republicans on just six of those issues.
Still, as they have since June 2009, Republicans lead Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot .
While she's much less often in the news these days, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remains Congress' most disliked leader . But Pelosi earns higher favorables than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid whose popularity has fallen to its lowest level in over two years.
As Congress wrestles over whether to raise the federal debt ceiling, voters nationwide strongly agree that failing to raise the debt ceiling is bad for the economy . But most see a failure to make big cuts in government spending as a bigger long- and short-term threat than the government defaulting on the federal debt.