Poll: Congress ratings plummet, Dems’ advantage gone
WASHINGTON — How low can it go?
By “it,” we mean the favorability rating of Congress, which has sunk to its lowest level since 1985, according to a Pew Research Center survey of more than 2,000 adults released this afternoon.
The numbers reflect a precipitous drop of 13 percentage points since April, down to a 37 percent favorability rating — coupled with the 52 percent who have an unfavorable view of Congress. The survey was taken in late August during heavy media attention to the town hall uprisings many members encountered during the congressional recess.
Members are accustomed to seeing Congress in disrepute (even though constituents usually give their own members and senators higher ratings). What is especially noteworthy in this poll is the partisan shift.
That double-digit preference of voters for Democrats in recent years that enabled Harry Truman’s party to capture 50 seats in the last two mid-term elections is all but gone. The Pew poll found that the Democrats’ so-called generic ballot ballot advantage had dwindled to a statistically insignificant 45-44 percent over Republicans.
The changing numbers have a lot to do with concerns about the health care proposals in Congress as well as with the evolving mindset of independent voters, who have been switching back to the GOP column due in part to their concerns about spending and the nation’s fiscal health.
The stark survey results likely will make it even harder for first-term Democrats and Democrats in swing districts to support the sort of far-reaching health-care reform that President Barack Obama has in mind when Congress returns to action next week.
But Obama’s popularity remains a positive for Democrats in the health-care squabbles to come. In the Pew Poll, 56 percent said they had a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in Obama to deal with the vexing issues surrounding health insurance.
Americans are “up in arms” over a liberal Dimocrat Congress trying to force a socialist health care system on them. They see the radical take over by the government of banks, automobile companies, insurance companies, and now health care, and are asking “what’s next?” Voters are more than upset…they’re “mad as hell and are not going to take it any more.” I predict the Dimocrats will lose 60-100 house seats next year and the Republicans will regain control of congress and restore some common sense and restraint. I can’t wait.
Hey Cap, are the republicans going to show some more of that “common sense” they showed during the Bush years? More big government, big spending, an ever more intrusive government and two wars without end. Yes sir, that’s “common sense”. There isn’t that much differance between the two.
twacapt,
The poll says:
In the Pew Poll, 56 percent said they had a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in Obama to deal with the vexing issues surrounding health insurance.
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Now how in the heck do you see that as Americans being up in arms? That 56% want Democrats and especially those Blue Dog Democrats to get behind Obama and get this “public option” health care reform bill DONE RIGHT!
Democrats and at least me, an Independent, are totally pissed at the Democratic Congress for being total screw ups about how they have gone about the public option.
Without a decent “public option” they need to just leave it alone if this is going to become a Republican driven bill.
Yes we are pretty damn pissed at all of Congress and especially those weak traitor to their people DEMOCRATS!
Let them be so foolish and stupid and allow Republicans to drive this healthcare reform bill, what idiots if they do! Do they NOT UNDERSTAND that we HATE the Republican way and we reject their way and place all you people in office to get this bill DONE? Those polls mean crap they are not telling the real story, you need to bring a understandable bill to the people so that ALL have some ideal:
1. What they will get.
2. How much going with the public option will cost out of our pockets.
3. How much it will cost a business who choose the public option
4. How and by who will people receive care…etc.
Break it down SIMPLE AND STUPID so people can have a true ideal of what they will be entitled to in healthcare under the public option. The fact that it was not broken down into how it will benefit those who choose a public option cause me to believe they are yanking our chains, that is, those of us who placed their butts in office for CHANGE, those dang Democrats.
D Walker represents the current Democratic Party thinking:
F$%#^ YOU!
You are either ‘for’ us… whatever that means at the time… or you are against us. Understand these are the very same people that marched 6 years ago to protest George Bush declaring that ‘decent is the highest form of patriotism.
The more his power slips away the angrier he gets… echoing an mirroring the Democratic elected officials which daily are becoming more unglued.
We have across the country Congressmen shouting down their voters. Nowhere at no time is this a good idea. Yet here they are doing it… and on camera making ‘instant’ commercials for their opponents in next years election.
While at the same time we have a President that tells leaders from the other party that ‘I won’ and telling his supporters to ‘get it the face’ of their opponents, and ‘bring guns to a knife fight.’
And this from a man that ran on ‘bringing the country together’
The Democrats won Congress by electing moderate (Blue Dogs) Democrats in ’swing’ districts and swing states. D Walker calls them: “those weak traitor to their people DEMOCRATS!”
The Democrats have but one option: vote this through IF, and only if their man Obama can sell it it. He can’t. When he fails… and he will… this health care bill is done.
Why can’t he?
Because he can not defend this bill on it’s merits. D Walker the reason that niether he… Obama… or anyone else hasn’t stood up and tell people:
1. What they will get.
2. How much going with the public option will cost out of our pockets.
3. How much it will cost a business who choose the public option
4. How and by who will people receive care…etc.
Is that the people, or at least those like me that have read the bill, don’t like the answers.
If this bill could be argued on it’s merits it would be. It can not.
If this bill is passed in it’s present form the outrage will topple the Blue Dogs from office and give control of Congress back to the GOP
If this bill doesn’t pass at all the far left… like D Walker will be outraged and ’stay home’ causing the Democrats loses in Congress… maybe enough to switch control… maybe not.
If some kind of compromise bill passes, especially one w/o a ‘public option’ nobody… left or right will be very happy.
These are the facts and they are beyond dispute
Hey Sailor - You want to talk about big spending. OK let’s do. The budget had a 459 billion dollar deficit in Bush’s last year of office. Obama’s is 1.6 trillion his first year. Do the math waterboy. But I do agree that it does not matter which party claims to be in control, there is no real difference. Why? Because we have a one party system disguised as a two party system. While I am conservative, I by no means am a republican. Do the research on the following: Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Tri-Lateral Commission, The Bilderbergs, and Bohemian Grove. If you seek the real truth, you will find it.
Those swept up in the media hyped euphoria of the election have had a chance to savor the “change” and pathetic “leadership” of this empty suit they have elected. Now they suffer the hangover of their mistake, for 3 more years. The polls reflect their utter disappointment and distrust. All this tool of the Clintons has done is shame this great nation in the eyes of the world, and ruined our economy for generations to come. He can’t even sell his ObamaCare to the congress. A total failure of leadership. As the popular bumpersticker reads, “somewhere in Kenya, a village is looking for its idiot.”
luvmysoftail, ditto. sailor, take a boat to the ocean, it’s just better that way.
luvmysoftail, absolutely correct. People are so busy complaining that either Democrats or Republicans are better, when they have more in common than differences. This is much like saying that a rapist is much better than a murderer. The system is set up to make it nearly impossible for anything but one of these two parties (a duopoly) to be elected. Do not believe that things would have been massively different if McCain would have won.
I am liberal on many issues–and I’m fed up with both houses of Congress.
U.S. senators and representatives should not be paid more than the median income of the citizens. Their retirement and health care benefits should be in line with the median retirement and health care benefits of the citizens. They should be subject to term limits. They need to stop going on foreign junkets, at taxpayers expense, since these activities have nothing to do with Congress’s real job.
Don’t worry. All of you will be more than willing to give them back all that “respect” once they start the forced H1N1 Vaccinations this fall to inject you with the deadly flu virus. You’ll become more and more compliant as your fellow citizens drop dead from the virus the govt gave them and you’re scrambling around the govt cheese and water trucks.