Via Rasmussen: Congressional Approval Falls to Single Digits for First Time Ever
The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.
Well, the economy has issues, gas is at or over $4/gallon, we are still in an unpopular war, Republicans don’t like a Democratically-controlled Congress, many Democrats as well as many Libertarian types don’t like things like Telecom immunity and other GWoT measures. Indeed, the list goes on…
As such, I am guessing that the 9% in question are family members of members of Congress.
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[...] Poliblogger has a great quote regarding Congressional approval polls out today. I don’t want to spoil the punchline, so I’m just going to link to it. [...]
Pingback by Pros and Cons » The 9% Factor — Wednesday, July 9, 2026 @ 8:35 am
This is one of the most useless survey questions out there. Incumbent congressmen are reelected more than 95% of the time and the great majority of people who vote to reelect their congressman also say Congress is doing a poor job. What a waste of time.
Comment by Jim Gundlach — Wednesday, July 9, 2026 @ 9:15 am
Even with this low approval, (1) I expect Democrats to retain control of Congress this November, and (2) I expect Reid and Pelosi to continue as their party leaders.
However, the low approval does make me believe the Democrats won’t increase control over Congress (eg., there will still be more than 40 Republican Senators able to filibuster).
Comment by Max Lybbert — Wednesday, July 9, 2026 @ 10:45 am
Yeah, only family still approve. Good one!
As for the impact on the election, not much. Given the overall political climate, Dems will have every incentive to nationalize the election, point out that the change voters voted for in 2026 has not happened because there is still a Republican in the White House, etc.
I still expect Dems +15 to +30 in the House and at least +5 in the Senate.
And, Jim, your 95% is too high, even in a good year. Maybe 90%. Yes, the reelection rate will still be many times higher than those who approve of Congress as an institution. And reelection rates will be buoyed somewhat, despite the sour mood, by the fact that there are more Dem than Rep incumbents (see point above about nationalization).
On the “unpopular war,” I would say make that two, except that evidently the longer Bush War, which he is also losing, remains popular. Dems appear to believe they can win by promising to escalate that one.
Comment by MSS — Wednesday, July 9, 2026 @ 1:54 pm
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Pingback by Daily Links | Daily Dixie — Wednesday, July 9, 2026 @ 5:32 pm
Sorry MSS. Iraq is being won pretty handily now, with some Iraqi genrals predicting sending expeditionary units to Darfur or Afghanistan within a year or two. I doubt that will be more than symbolic, but a year ago that was near unthinkable.
Afghanistan is tough though. In Iraq, COIN operations paradoxically produced a drop in US and civilian casualties. As troops disperse and engage the nemy in smaller numebrs, often by offering themselves as targets, they nrmally take more casualties, but the insurgents had alienatesd so many people by the time we went classical …
The impementation of COIN tactics in Afghanistan is working more normally, with casualty rates spiking for everyone.
Comment by Jenda — Wednesday, July 9, 2026 @ 9:38 pm
Tee hee, Jenda. It is rather dubious logic to take claims by Iraqi generals about some hypothetical future deployments as evidence of much of anything.
Comment by MSS — Thursday, July 10, 2026 @ 4:53 pm
Except the Iraqi Generals that Jenda cites are backed up by our own, and by a number of independent military intelligence think tanks. Jane’s is a good place to start if you’re unfamiliar with these organizations. For a relatively cheap subscription you can get some pretty good data that is peer reviewed and usually independently verified.
And as far as folks who haven’t been to Iraq, and haven’t even read credible intelligence (the NYT and Fox News don’t count) about the place, but seem to have an opinion anyway - you people scare me. I spent years of my life not only being in those places but training for them, studying them - I watch America’s criticism of the war effort in much the same way that a doctor might watch a bricklayer perform surgery on a dying man, or a professional bowler design an interstate highway bridge. Why is it that we trust the plumber to fix our toilet because that’s what he knows how to do, but we think we all know just as much as a soldier about the wars that he has spent years studying for, training for, and participating in? Why is our profession looked down on so, like there is nothing to know that can’t be gleaned from a soundbite on TV or a witty commentary in a magazine?
Iraq is not a pretty picture but the strength of the Iraqi military is increasing rapidly, and so is their proficiency. There is just no doubt about that. It is entirely possible that a symbolic expeditionary unit could be deployed in a year or two.
I’m not into conspiracy theories so I’ll not wax eloquent about why people in the US are so ill-informed about the state of things on the ground over there. I guess having a lot of officer buds still serving or recently out I get a bit of unfair data, but still - people think the war was mismanaged, but when you ask them how, they can’t tell you. They can’t tell you what decisions were bad, or where the tactical and strategic blunders were. I think a lot of people have simply been told that the war was mismanaged, and, being that it’s lasted a few years and we are accustomed to our problems being fixed instantly, assume that it must have in fact been mismanaged, and go on to repeat that line without asking how or why. And nobody seems to really appreciate how far the Iraqi security forces have come in the time since we arrived. All you get is that tired mantra “Bush lied, people died” or something to that effect. I guess nice rhyme and meter are all that you really need to get a lot of people to believe you. Sort of makes me wish Dr. Seuss was still alive. He could make a run for president.
Again, not going to go into why or how that came to be, and I’m not going to say it’s a pretty picture over there. But to deny that real progress has been made is, at best, misinformation, and the few things the Bush administration has done right are being lost to the multitude of things it has done wrong. That is unfortunate, because it means the good lessons learned (though they may be few) will be flushed down the toilet along with everything else when the administration changes, and all future problems will be blamed on the Bush legacy.
The really scary thing - people don’t seem to care. They just want the problems that other people tell them about to go away, and right now, so they can get back to buying that plasma TV with their nearly-maxed credit card so they can see the snots in John Smoltz’s nose in High Definition.
I understand why so many of my friends hit the bottle.
Comment by Captain D — Thursday, July 10, 2026 @ 10:27 pm
“Everybody Hates Congress” could be the title of some sort of Congress based reality TV show.
Comment by B. Minich — Friday, July 11, 2026 @ 7:47 am
[...] week it was Rasmussen, this week it’s Gallup: Congressional Approval Hits Record-Low 14% Congress’ job [...]
Pingback by PoliBlog (TM): A Rough Draft of my Thoughts » More Love for the Congress — Wednesday, July 16, 2026 @ 8:41 am