Congress Is The Least Trusted Branch Of U.S. Government

The job approval rating for Congress has risen slightly, and now rests at 20%. That's the first time it has reached the 20% level in over a year -- and hasn't been above 20% in nearly four years. The American public is still very unhappy with Congress.

That abysmal job approval rating also results in Congress being the least trusted branch of the United States government. Only 35% of Americans say they trust Congress, while majorities say they trust the executive branch (51%) and the judicial branch (61%).

We can get a good clue as to why Congress is viewed so poorly by Americans. A majority of Americans (53%) say they want government officials to compromise for the good of the country, while only 21% want officials to stick to their beliefs regardless of whether anything gets accomplished or not.

Americans correctly see a majority of congressional officials as being more invested in political ideology than in compromising to solve the country's problems, and they don't like it.

These charts are from a recent Gallup Poll -- done between September 7th and 11th of a random national sample of 1,020 voters, with a 4 point margin of error.