93% Of Americans Have No Confidence In U.S. Congress

There have been numerous polls recently showing that the American people do not approve of the job that Congress is doing. The average job approval of Congress in the most recent polls rests at a pitiful 12.8%. That's bad, but a new Gallup Poll shows the ridiculous antics of the 113th Congress has disgusted the public so much that they no longer have any confidence in Congress as an institution. A record low of only 7% say they have either a great deal or a lot of confidence in Congress -- meaning 93% of Americans have no confidence in Congress.

That's only about one-third of the confidence the people have in Big Business, organized labor, or the banks. And it's about one-fourth the confidence the public has in other government institutions, like the presidency or the Supreme Court. Americans currently are unhappy with a lot of American institutions, but none of them have any where near the lack of confidence shown in Congress.

Republicans are still trying to convince the public that the 2014 election is a referendum on President Obama (who is not even on the ballot). But this survey shows, as many others have, that the coming election will be about this very unpopular Congress (whose members are on the November ballot).

This latest Gallup Poll was done between June 5th and 8th of a random national sample of 1,027 adults, with a margin of error of 4 points.

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I was a little surprised at how poorly organized religion did on the confidence score. While more than 70% of Americans claim to be christian, less than half (45%) say they have a lot of confidence in organized religion. Is this a backlash against fundamentalist attempts to legislate religion?