62% Would Vote to Replace Entire Congress
Thursday, August 04, 2011
Congress just can’t win. Most voters still lack confidence even their
own local representative and want to replace every single one of them.
No matter how bad things are, 63% of Likely Voters believe Congress can always find a way to make them worse. Only 20% disagree with this pessimistic assessment.
If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 62% would vote to dump all the current legislators and start over again. Just 15% would keep the existing Congress, while 23% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
It’s not just Congress in general that make voters skeptical. Just 32% of voters are even somewhat confident that their own representative in Congress is actually representing their best interests. Sixty-five percent (65%) don’t share that confidence.
Eighty-two percent (82%) of voters believe members of Congress should take a 25% pay cut until the federal budget is balanced.
“During the debt ceiling debacle, voters listened to members of Congress like they were the boy who cried wolf,” says Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports,. “While official Washington obsessed over the minute-by-minute silliness, voters expected all along that the debt ceiling would be raised without making significant spending cuts.” Forty-nine percent (49%) don’t even think the government will actually cut the spending agreed upon.
(Want a free daily e-mail update ? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
The national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 30-31, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC .See methodology.
Voter approval of the job Congress is doing also has fallen to a new low as just 6% believe the legislators are doing a good or an excellent job. Voters are more convinced than ever that most congressmen are crooks.
It’s important to note that this survey was taken while the clock was ticking down on a debt ceiling decision but before a final deal was reached. Last week, most voters disapproved of how both parties were handling the debt ceiling debate.
These surveys suggest there has been little change in the voter disgust expressed in Election 2010. Last September, just prior to the midterm elections, 62% said that Congress could always make things worse. In January of last year, 32% were confident that their official representatives actually had their best interests at heart.
It should be noted that these attitudes have been around for a while. In September 2008, 59% would have voted to replace the entire Congress.
There is little partisan disagreement on any of these questions, but the Political Class sharply disagrees with the negative assessments of Congress.
While 73% of Mainstream voters, for example, think Congress can always make things worse, 56% of the Political Class disagree. Seventy-three percent (73%) of those in the Mainstream also would vote to replace the entire Congress in the next election if they could, but just 30% of Political Class voters would do the same.
Interestingly, however, the Political Class is only slightly more confident than Mainstream voters that their congressional representatives are actually representing the voters’ best interests.
Midterm elections and a change of power in the House of Representatives haven't lowered the level of voter discontent with the federal government. Sixty-nine percent (69%) remain at least somewhat angry with the current policies of the federal government, including 38% who are Very Angry.
Just 30% think it is at least somewhat likely that the federal budget will be balanced for even a single year during their lifetimes.
House Speaker John Boehner is the only congressional leader whose favorables are up noticeably this month, but his negatives have risen even more as the debate over raising the federal debt ceiling dragged on.
Americans still list being a member of Congress as the least favorable on a list of nine professions.
Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.
Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it’s free) or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public.
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No matter how bad things are, 63% of Likely Voters believe Congress can always find a way to make them worse. Only 20% disagree with this pessimistic assessment.
If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 62% would vote to dump all the current legislators and start over again. Just 15% would keep the existing Congress, while 23% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
It’s not just Congress in general that make voters skeptical. Just 32% of voters are even somewhat confident that their own representative in Congress is actually representing their best interests. Sixty-five percent (65%) don’t share that confidence.
Eighty-two percent (82%) of voters believe members of Congress should take a 25% pay cut until the federal budget is balanced.
“During the debt ceiling debacle, voters listened to members of Congress like they were the boy who cried wolf,” says Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports,. “While official Washington obsessed over the minute-by-minute silliness, voters expected all along that the debt ceiling would be raised without making significant spending cuts.” Forty-nine percent (49%) don’t even think the government will actually cut the spending agreed upon.
(Want a free daily e-mail update ? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
The national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 30-31, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC .See methodology.
Voter approval of the job Congress is doing also has fallen to a new low as just 6% believe the legislators are doing a good or an excellent job. Voters are more convinced than ever that most congressmen are crooks.
It’s important to note that this survey was taken while the clock was ticking down on a debt ceiling decision but before a final deal was reached. Last week, most voters disapproved of how both parties were handling the debt ceiling debate.
These surveys suggest there has been little change in the voter disgust expressed in Election 2010. Last September, just prior to the midterm elections, 62% said that Congress could always make things worse. In January of last year, 32% were confident that their official representatives actually had their best interests at heart.
It should be noted that these attitudes have been around for a while. In September 2008, 59% would have voted to replace the entire Congress.
There is little partisan disagreement on any of these questions, but the Political Class sharply disagrees with the negative assessments of Congress.
While 73% of Mainstream voters, for example, think Congress can always make things worse, 56% of the Political Class disagree. Seventy-three percent (73%) of those in the Mainstream also would vote to replace the entire Congress in the next election if they could, but just 30% of Political Class voters would do the same.
Interestingly, however, the Political Class is only slightly more confident than Mainstream voters that their congressional representatives are actually representing the voters’ best interests.
Midterm elections and a change of power in the House of Representatives haven't lowered the level of voter discontent with the federal government. Sixty-nine percent (69%) remain at least somewhat angry with the current policies of the federal government, including 38% who are Very Angry.
Just 30% think it is at least somewhat likely that the federal budget will be balanced for even a single year during their lifetimes.
House Speaker John Boehner is the only congressional leader whose favorables are up noticeably this month, but his negatives have risen even more as the debate over raising the federal debt ceiling dragged on.
Americans still list being a member of Congress as the least favorable on a list of nine professions.
Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.
Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it’s free) or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public.
Rasmussen Reports Platinum Members get an all-access pass to polling news, analysis and insight not available to the general public.
Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade. To learn more about our methodology, click here
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