Congressional Job Approval Is Still Extremely Low

I have been posting recently about the rebounding job approval numbers for President Obama. Several polls show this, and most put his new numbers at around 50% approval. The Rasmussen Poll does a daily survey, and their approval numbers for the president have been bouncing between 48% and 51% for a few weeks now. It seems that many Americans like the strength the president has recently shown -- the fact that he refuses to be a weak "lame duck" president.

But the same cannot be said for Congress. After taking control of both houses of Congress in the last election, the Republicans are claiming they have a mandate to oppose the president and impose their own policies. Unfortunately for them, that is not the view of most Americans. As the chart above shows, the public job approval of Congress is still extremely low -- about 11% (37 to 40 points below presidential job approval). And that 11% is the highest congressional approval registered by Rasmussen since October of 2012.

My question now is -- Where is this public mandate for GOP policies? I submit that it is nonexistent -- a figment of the Republican's imagination.

This chart was made from a recent Rasmussen Poll -- done on January 25th and 26th of a random national sample of 800 likely voters, with a margin of error of 3.5 points.