59% Would Vote to Replace Entire Congress

[China]

59% Would Vote to Replace Entire Congress

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Congress was front and center in the national news last week and the American people were far from impressed. If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, 59% of voters would like to throw them all out and start over again. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 17% would vote to keep the current legislators in office.

Today, just 23% have even a little confidence in the ability of Congress to deal with the nation’s economic problems and only 24% believe most Members of Congress understand legislation before they vote on it.

Last week, the House of Representatives initially rejected a financial bailout bill proposed by the Bush Administration. Later, after the Senate added a number of items that some call “pork” and others call “sweeteners,” the measure eventually passed. While the bill survived Washington, it did so at a time when just 30% of voters favored it and 45% were opposed.

Only half (49%) believe that the current Congress is better than individuals selected at random from the phone book. Thirty-three percent (33%) believe a randomly selected group of Americans could do a better job and 19% are not sure (see crosstabs).

A separate survey found that just 11% of voters say Congress is doing a good or an excellent job. (see crosstabs and recent trends).

Despite these reviews, more than 90% of Congress is likely to be elected this November due to an electoral system designed to benefit incumbents.

Click on the link for the full article

[DCSaints_fan]

Sometimes I wish we had a parliamentary system

[DjTj]

What percentage are planning to vote for their incumbent Congressman? I bet it's higher than 59%.

[China]

What percentage are planning to vote for their incumbent Congressman? I bet it's higher than 59%.

Well, of course. They want to replace all the Congressmen except their own. The one they voted for couldn't be bad, it's everybody else.

[Titaw]

I say we replace the enite GOVERNMENT with average working Joes, people that have lived tough lives and not had everything handed to them.

[Zguy28]

What percentage are planning to vote for their incumbent Congressman? I bet it's higher than 59%.

Yep. Steny Hoyer gets over 80% of the vote every two years because 20 years ago he kept our Navy Base off of the BRAC list.

[JMS]

What percentage are planning to vote for their incumbent Congressman? I bet it's higher than 59%.

Excactly right. 90% of the people believe the problem is the other guys representative... Congressmen are typically re-elected more than 90% of the time. I believe 2006 was an exception; I believe 2008 will be too.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

These polls are always the same.

People hate Congress.

But they love their Congressman.