Congress Slogs On: Returning to Work When Your Job Performance Stinks

Originally written on January 20, 2012

Americans loathe Congress.  The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Congressional approval ratings plummeting to 13%, a forty-year low.  Disliking Congress is nothing new.  They’ve only averaged an approval rating of 38% since 1974 in polls by ABC News/Washington Post and Gallup.  But this depth of frustration is unusual.    

Congressional Republicans have attracted the most ire with a 21% approval rating.  But their Democratic colleagues are only slightly more popular, at 33%.  Both parties have lost 17 percentage points in their Congressional approval ratings over the last three years and have together bottomed out at 13%. 

This should result in a pink slip.  Imagine what would happen to most Americans if their job performance ratings were so low?  Everyone but Congress sees the absurdity of this situation.  Unfortunately, the people can do little except wait for their terms to end.   

Far from being embarrassed, many in Congress blame one another for their dysfunction.  “The American public are right to be distressed, disappointed, anxious, angry about the failure of the Congress to address the serious problems confronting our country,” said Democratic Congressman Steny Hoyer of Maryland recently.  What Hoyer and his colleagues across the aisle don’t understand is that contrition cannot replace the profound change that most Americans expect in Congressional politics.  Absent is any accountability or remorse.  Americans have seen this sophomoric squabbling for years.  It’s become tiresome, as this latest poll indicates.    

Why such historic levels of disapproval now?  Consider two possibilities: brinksmanship and behavior.  What Americans really resent is the ease with which Congress gambles with their livelihoods.  Who suffers from Congressional intransigence?  The people who elected them.  A low point came last July during the debt ceiling and default crisis.  The public’s outrage was palpable as partisan politics threatened to undo America’s credit rating. 

Making matters worse was the glib self-righteousness expressed by Republicans that a credit-rating downgrade was inconsequential.  This is American financial exceptionalism at its most dangerous.  Despite a last ditch agreement on the debt ceiling in late July, creditors and markets twitched.  Proving Congress’s irrelevance, Standard and Poor’s downgraded the US credit rating, and the Dow Jones had its most tumultuous week since the 2008 financial meltdown.  

“Congress fell off the approval cliff last summer amid the budget squabbling that led the country to near-default; it went from a dismal-enough 28 percent approval a year ago to half that in October,” points out Langer Research Associates.  Most stunning of all, and what probably jumpstarted the disgust with Congress, were the statements that followed the debt ceiling agreement.  Democrats and Republicans cast themselves in heroic terms.  Instead of being humbled by aspersions thrown their way, they glibly asserted they had saved the day.  Americans could only listen in amazement. 

Here’s a sampling: From House Speaker John Boehner, “I’m going to tell you, this has been a long battle - we’ve fought valiantly - and frankly we’ve done it by listening to the American people.”  Or this from Majority Leader Harry Reid, “I am relieved to say that leaders of both parties have come together for the sake of our economy, to reach a historic bipartisan compromise, that ends this dangerous standoff.”  This is akin to a medical team waiting to start CPR until the patient is blue and then congratulating themselves for saving a life.

The silver lining is that President Obama could benefit from the public’s dim view of Congress, although he’s not without his own problems.  His 48% approval rating is a glowing 35 percentage points above Congress.  This allows him to shift some blame onto Congress and cast himself as a hardworking Democratic president who has been thwarted by obstructionist Republicans in Congress.  He may get some traction with this narrative.  However, of the four presidents who began re-election years with approval ratings below 50% only one was re-elected – Richard Nixon in 1972. 

Most of the electorate is grumpy, from conservatives who refuse to back Mitt Romney to liberals castigating President Obama.  Congress may be an easy target, but no politicians are immune from the anger that’s simmering in the electorate.  This is not a year to be smug if you are doing the people’s work. 

Sources

Kane, Paul and Jon Cohen. “84 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, poll finds.” 16 Jan. 2012. The Washington Post. Web. 22 Jan. 2012. 

Langer, Gary. “Congress Hits a New Low in Approval; Obama Opens Election Year Under 50%.” 16 Jan. 2012. ABC News Blog. Web. 22 Jan. 2012. 

Langer Research. “ABC News/Washington Post Poll: Congress and Obama.” 16 Jan. 2012. Langer Research Associates. Web. 22 Jan. 2012

Real Clear Politics. “Congressional Job Approval.” 20 Jan. 2012. Web. 

Rowley, James. “Congress Returns Amid Historically Low Approval Ratings.” 19 Jan. 2012. Bloomberg Businessweek. Web. 20 Jan. 2012.     

Wolf, Z. Byron. “Obama, Boehner Announce Agreement to Raise Debt Ceiling, Avoid Default.” 31 Jul. 2011. ABC News, The Note Blog. Web. 23 Jan. 2012.