Approval of Congress falls to all-time low

Yahoo News, by Joel Roberts, The Ticket, Aug 15, 2012 

A view of Capitol Hill in Washington.
(REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)

Just 10 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday, tying the lowest mark in the 38 years the poll has been conducted.

That number was previously reached this past February, but bounced back a bit in subsequent months.

Eighty-three percent of Americans disapprove of Congress, the poll shows.

Gallup says Congress' approval rating is down among all political groups and is nearly the same among Democrats, Republicans and independents.

Approval of Congress hasn't topped 20 percent since June 2011, according to Gallup.

Why are Congress' ratings so low? Gallup suggests the struggling economy and divided control of Congress, with a Republican majority in the House and a Democratic majority in the Senate, may be factors.

It may also have something to do with the fact that Congress is on pace, according to USAToday, "to make history with the least productive legislative year in the post World War II era."

Of the 3,914 bills that have been introduced in Congress so far this year, just 61 have become law — less than 2 percent.

Last year, after Republicans took control of the House, Congress passed just 90 bills. Only one other time in history, in 1995, has Congress failed to pass at least 125 new laws.

Not even the so-called "do-nothing Congress" of 1948 passed as few laws as the present one, USA Today says.

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