Approval Of Congress (And Its Leaders) Is Still Dismal

If the Republican politicians thought gaining control over both houses of Congress would improve their job approval ratings, they were sadly mistaken. The chart above shows all of the polls taken on congressional job approval in 2015 (and therefore represent views on this new 114th Congress). The figure on the far right represents RealClearPolitics average of all these polls (and in the last election, their average proved more accurate than any of the individual polls).

It seems pretty obvious that the election hasn't improved the public's opinion of Congress at all. And the chart below (from a new Rasmussen Poll) shows that those views are pretty negative for both parties. Note that the congressional leaders of both parties have an approval rating nearly as bad as for Congress as a whole.

Most members of the general public don't like the political games being played in Congress. They know this nation faces some serious problems, and they want their elected officials to compromise to solve those problems (as they have been able to do in the past). And they mean real compromise -- not the GOP idea of "compromise" (that Democrats should give them everything they want).

Unfortunately, what the public wants means very little to the politicians in Congress -- especially the Republicans. They only care about helping their rich buddies, and maintaining the purity of their ideology. It's going to be a tough two years before the next election, and very little will be accomplished to help most Americans.