Single Digit Congressional Approval Ratings

Rasmussen Reports notes that Congressional job approval ratings are in the single digits, which is not a good sign.

The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.

Last month, 11% of voters gave the legislature good or excellent ratings. Congress has not received higher than a 15% approval rating since the beginning of 2008.

The percentage of Democrats who give Congress positive ratings fell from 17% last month to 13% this month. The number of Democrats who give Congress a poor rating remained unchanged. Among Republicans, 8% give Congress good or excellent ratings, up just a point from last month. Sixty-five percent (65%) of GOP voters say Congress is doing a poor job, down a single point from last month.

Voters not affiliated with either party are the most critical of Congressional performance. Just 3% of those voters give Congress positive ratings, down from 6% last month. Sixty-three percent (63%) believe Congress is doing a poor job, up from 57% last month.

Just 12% of voters think Congress has passed any legislation to improve life in this country over the past six months. That number has ranged from 11% to 13% throughout 2008. The majority of voters (62%) say Congress has not passed any legislation to improve life in America.

While normally such a matter would seem to indicate that a "throw the bums out mentality" would pervade in elections come November, I would still expect that most incumbents will be re-elected.

Here's the problem, most Americans may not like what Congress is doing, but they still love their congressman, so the taint of Congress doing a poor job in the abstract rarely makes it to the individual representative.

So the question to voters is, will you dump your Congressman in favor of someone who is untested? A tough call to make.

By the way, I don't expect Congress to get any better in their performance in the near or middle term.