Congressional Performance

Voters Not Cutting New Congress Any Slack

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

There's a new Congress in town, but it still has a way to go to convince voters it's not more of the same.

The first Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey conducted since the new Congress went into session early this month finds that 10% of Likely U.S. Voters rate its performance as good or excellent. Forty-eight percent (48%) say the legislators are doing a poor job. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

In surveys from January 2009 through December 2010, the previous Congress, with Democrats in control of both the House and Senate, earned good or excellent marks ranging from 10% to 23% and poor marks running from 43% to 71%. Democrats remain in charge of the Senate, but Republicans are now the majority party in the House.

Despite the change in the House, GOP voters remain more critical of Congress than members of President Obama's party. Fifty-five percent (55%) of Republicans and 60% of voters not affiliated with either of the major parties say the current Congress is doing a poor job, a view shared by just 32% of Democrats.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Mainstream voters think Congress is doing a poor job, but just 24% of the Political Class agrees.

Still, favorable ratings for John Boehner, the new Republican House speaker, among all voters have risen to their highest levels to date. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, now House minority leader, remains the most unpopular congressional leader as she has been for the past two years.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on January 23-24, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Last week, the House repealed the unpopular national health care law, sending the issue on to the Senate. Most voters continue to support repeal as they have every week since Democrats in Congress passed it last March.

Boehner like many of his predecessors has pledged that the new Congress will be more open and transparent than the previous one, but voters want even more openness than he has promised.

Thirty-one percent (31%) believe Congress over the past year has passed legislation that will significantly improve life in America, up two points from the last month and the highest result found in over three years. Fifty percent (50%) believe Congress has not passed such legislation, the lowest result found in recent years. Another 20% are undecided.

Half of voters (50%) say the more important role for Congress is passing good legislation rather than preventing bad legislation from becoming law. Forty percent (40%) take the opposite view. Those numbers have shifted little since September of last year.

Most Republicans (53%) put more emphasis on stopping bad legislation, while the majority (68%) of Democrats see passing good legislation as more important. Unaffiliateds are evenly divided on the question.

Also showing little change is the finding that only 13% of all voters believe most members of Congress are more interested in helping people than in helping their own careers. Seventy-six percent (76%) say most congressmen think of their careers first.

Voters are still fairly divided on the level of corruption in Congress, however. While 37% believe most members of Congress are corrupt, 33% disagree. Another 30% are not sure.

Earlier this month, voters were pessimistic about the new Congress. Even with Tea Party pressure on the GOP to cut the size of government, voters still expect government spending, taxes and the deficit to go up over the next two years.

Two-out-of-three voters (67%) think it is at least somewhat likely that most voters will be disappointed with Republicans in Congress before the 2012 elections. Even more (82%) think it is at least somewhat likely that most voters will be disappointed with Democrats in Congress by then.

Voters now trust the GOP more than Democrats on all 10 of the most important issues regularly surveyed by Rasmussen Reports including the economy, health care, taxes and national security.

Republicans hold a five-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending January 23, 2011, their smallest lead since the first week of December. Their lead has ranged from three to 12 points since last June.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_ ... erformance