New Gallup Poll Shows “Honesty” Rating of Congress at All-time Lows

December 17, 2013 By Allen Clifton

Lately the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) has been in the news with people citing various polls showing President Obama’s approval numbers in the low 40′s, and approval for “Obamacare” around the same level.
Republicans, in particular, have jumped on these numbers as “evidence” of the American people rejecting the new healthcare law and continued distrust in President Obama.
Granted, President Obama’s approval numbers have dropped recently (though watch for them to climb back up in the next several months) – they’re still nowhere near as horrifically low as Congress.
In fact, by comparison, President Obama is riding on cloud nine.
See, Gallup did a poll a few weeks ago showing that the overall approval rating of Congress has sunk to a total of nine percent.  A number that has continually drifted downward since the emergence of tea party influence in Congress.

Gallup also did a poll about Congressional honesty — and they hit numbers even lower than nine percent.  According to this Gallup poll, Americans give the honesty and ethics of Congress an approval rating of a whopping eight percent. 
That. Is. Terrible.
Considering how Republicans claim that Obama’s numbers in the lower 40′s indicate the American people “rejecting” him and his ideology – what does a nine percent approval rating and an eight percent ethics and honesty rating say about what the American people think of Congress?
And again, these numbers continue to decline the more power and influence the tea party gains over Congress.
It’s absolutely embarrassing that Congress has sunk to such incredible levels of incompetence.  But honestly, what should we expect?  We have a good portion of the conservative members of Congress who have only one goal – to obstruct as much as possible.
After all, isn’t that what’s best for their political ideology?  You know, basing a large portion of their party’s beliefs on the assertion that the government is corrupt and inefficient — and then proving it by doing their best to ensure the government is corrupt and inefficient.
Which is basically all they’ve done since President Obama moved into the White House.
And while some more established Republicans have begun pushing back against the ultraconservatives and tea party groups, I believe their actions will ultimately accomplish nothing.  They’ll either pull back and continue to pander to these well-financed and powerful groups or potentially cause a break up of the GOP as we know it.


Either way, these terrible numbers from Gallup do tell us one thing – the American people are sick and tired of the partisan game playing that’s been going on in Congress.
Which is why November 2014 couldn’t be more important for liberals.  It’s our chance to finally end this blatant obstruction and give President Obama a Congress that will actually have a goal of getting something done.