The good news? Congress’ Gallup Poll job approval rating is in doublt digit territory this year, after hitting 9 percent in November 2013.
The bad news for Congress? Its approval rating averaged 15 percent this year, up from last year’s record low of 14 percent.
That’s no real surprise, since Congress’ approval number hasn’t topped 20 percent for the past five years. Record is 56 percent in 2001.
The big number, Gallup said, “reflected the rally in support for government institutions after the 9/11 terror attacks, Americans' approval of Congress has generally been dropping each year, with the exception of the spike in 2009.”
The dismal 2014 number was uniform across the board--15 percent among Republicans and Democrats, 14 percent from independnets.
Gallup blames the low number partly on divided control of Congress. Democrats now control the Senate while Republicans run the House of Representatives. Next year, Republicans will have majorities in both chambers.