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US voters furious: disapproval of Congress rises to an all-time high of 82%

Saturday, August 6th 2011 - 08:15 UTC
Full article 6 comments
The negative rating of Congress was the worst in 34 years The negative rating of Congress was the worst in 34 years

Disapproval of the United States Congress rose to an all-time high after weeks of rancorous partisan battles over raising the US debt ceiling took the country to the brink of default, according a New York Times/CBS News public opinion poll published on Friday.

A record 82% of Americans now say they disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job, compared with 14% who approve, the poll found.

The disapproval rating for Congress was the highest in the 34 years the question has been asked in the poll and up from the previous high of 77% set in May 2010.

The US Congress approved a 2.1 trillion dollars deficit-cutting plan just before an Aug 2 deadline for raising the US borrowing authority. The deal to lift the 14.3 trillion dollars debt ceiling was signed into law with just hours to spare before the government was due to run out of money to pay all its bills.

An overwhelming 72% of the poll respondents disapproved of the way opposition Republicans in Congress handled the debt ceiling negotiations, while 60% disapproved of the way Congressional Democrats acted to resolve the crisis.

Half of those polled said the debt ceiling agreement should have included increased tax revenue, which Republicans fought, as well as spending cuts. However 44% said the agreement should have relied on spending cuts alone.

An overwhelming majority, 82% said the debt ceiling fight was more about gaining political advantage than doing what is best for the country.

More than half said they think Republicans compromised too little while 34% said President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress did not compromise enough.
 

Categories: Politics, United States.

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  • briton

    come on America, you can do it,
    south america and the rest want you to fail,
    so much for friends,

    but we have confidence in your ability to come through this [again]

    Aug 06th, 2011 - 11:23 am 0
  • Fido Dido

    Briton, first you need to understand that the rest of the world, include your silly island (where many people in the US see the UK as a parasite) doesn't care much about the US. Secondly, the majority of the people here won't solve the problem until they realize they have a major problem with the banks and their cronies in Washington DC. It's not that they cannot do it, but they do have the will? Answer is yes and no, because the title of this article is as old, same old music, and once their are elections, they forget about it. That you will only see and understand if you live here.

    Why a Brit like you types like “we have confidence in your ability to come through this [again] ” is beyond me because you have no relationship at all with the US, (except the language though they don't understand you ugly out there) and you're probably the only boy that has confidence in a nation who's so called power is fading away and has no clue about the real picture. And by the way, America as a continent is doing fine (America isn't a nation what you haven't figured out yet, perhaps you need to read more books and travel overseas what you have never done), it's just the USA that's losing it's position what it has. is that the end of the world? no.

    Aug 06th, 2011 - 07:45 pm 0
  • briton

    as long as their are experts like you around
    we dont need to do anything,

    Aug 06th, 2011 - 09:43 pm 0
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