Congress has never been wildly popular, but it has sunk to a historic low in the eyes of the public, according to a new poll.
A Gallup survey released Tuesday shows that just 18 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing — or isn’t doing.
Political analysts say the plummeting approval ratings, down 9 points from last month, are due to the war in Iraq and the perception that the Democratic-led Congress has not done enough to bring it to an end.
The public is also turned off by the lack of action in Congress on other major issues, such as health care, immigration and global warming, analysts say.
“What it indicates is that there has been pretty much a collapse in the support from Democrats and from independents,” University of Wisconsin political science professor John Coleman said.
Approval of Congress among Democrats has dropped from 32 to 21 percent in the past month, according to the poll. Support among independents has declined from 30 to 17 percent during the same period.
Democrats, Coleman said, “believed Congress would much more strongly force the president’s hand on the change of course in Iraq. But most of what the president has wanted to do so far he has been able to do.”
The last time Congress suffered from similarly low ratings was in 1992, when dozens of members were implicated in a check-bouncing scandal that cost the Democrats the majority in the House.
This time, with no scandal casting a shadow over Congress, lack of action seems responsible for public disillusionment.
The new Democratic majority has managed to pass only two major initiatives — lobbying reform and a minimum wage increase. Efforts to enact an immigration reform bill and significant global warming legislation so far have stalled.
“People just don’t think Congress is doing much at all,” University of New Hampshire political science professor Andrew Smith said. “All they see is bickering and the pointing of fingers at each other.”
Brendan Daly, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, blamed the gridlock in Congress on Republicans and President Bush, who have refused to sign off on the Democratic initiatives, such as a troop withdrawal bill.
Republicans said Democrats must make more of an effort to cooperate with the minority to pass legislation.
“The American people want solutions, not gridlock,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
