Poor Approval Marks For Bush, Congress

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President Bush doesn’t fare very well in the latest CBS News poll with an approval rating of just 44 percent and still limp support for his proposed Social Security overhaul. But at least he's doing better than Congress, which earns a thumbs-up from only 35 percent of Americans – nearly as low a rating as it received last month immediately after lawmakers' unpopular intervention in the Terri Schiavo case. Approval ratings for Congress have historically been low but they're now at one of their lowest points since the late 1990s. Disapproval of the Republican-controlled Congress even extends to 39 percent of Republicans, along with 59 percent of Democrats. Just 37 percent think what the current Congress has accomplished so far has been good for the country; 41 percent think what Congress has done has been bad. But most Americans don’t seem to know what Congress has been up to – or else they think Congress hasn’t been up to much. Asked to name the thing Congress has done over the past year that sticks out most in their minds, the highest number, 9 percent, said the Schiavo decision; 3 percent mentioned actions surrounding the Iraq war; 4 percent said Congress had accomplished nothing; while 68 percent could not name anything it had done. Americans cited the war in Iraq as the country's top priority, followed by the economy and jobs, Social Security, terrorism, health care and, for the first time, gas prices. The Terri Schiavo case, or related legislative attempts, was not mentioned as a top concern. But few Americans think Congress really cares about what they think anyway. Only 8 percent say elected officials pay a good deal of attention to the people who elect them; 43 percent think they pay some attention to voters, and 43 percent say not much attention. [more]
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