The last time Americans overwhelmingly approved of Congress, the U.S. had recently gone to war and was still reeling from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Gas prices were $1.31 a gallon and “Fallin’” by Alicia Keys was the top song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The year was 2001, and 84 percent of the public approved of the way Congress was handling its job, the most since Gallup began tracking that metric in 1974. But the glow didn’t last for long.
Approval never reached those heights again, and now the numbers have basically flipped; 86 percent disapprove as of this April, tying the all-time high. Just 10 percent are satisfied.
With ratios like that, what’s a lawmaker to do?
“The average member of Congress has almost no agency for altering how Congress as a collective does, so they very much continue to try to win their own reelections,” said Kevin Kosar, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
