Poor Congress. Their favorability ratings are worse than ever. And the federal shutdown has done little to boost their public image. A new poll shows Congress wallowing at an abysmal 8 percent approval rating – that's compared to the president's latest at 41 percent. Guess they figure they've got nothing to lose in this standoff?
(Too bad we can't call for a vote of no confidence like they do across the pond. That might be one way to kick the bums out.)
At any rate, it wasn't long ago I wrote about why we hate Congress.
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But on the heels of this fresh Public Polling Policy, whose collective polling tongues appear to have been planted firmly in their cheeks, I thought it would be a light respite to share with you five things that are actually more popular than congress right now. So, without further ado…
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| (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) |
No. 5: IRS
Ouch. This has to be the second-most painful entry on this list. We'd take an audit over a meeting with our senator? Damn… Between the two, people picked the IRS over Congress 42 percent to 33 percent.
And perhaps not surprisingly, Republicans polled supported Congress over the tax collectors by a nearly two-to-one margin over the Democrats, who leaned more toward the bean counters.
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| Women dressed as witches dance during the Walpurgis Night in the Harz mountains near Thale, northern Germany. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) |
No. 4: Witches
Maybe this was a seasonal pick, since, as my daughter likes to remind me constantly, "It's Halloween time…"
But the pollsters found the American public backed the witches (whether real or imagined is unclear), 46 percent to 32 percent.
Maybe the Wiccans should look at a third-party run in the midterms?
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| The bile from this rare Asiatic moon bear, in Tan Uyen, Vietnam, is a coveted traditional medicine ingredient used to treat everything from hemorrhoids to epilepsy. (AP Photo/Margie Mason) |
No. 3: Hemorrhoids
What can you possibly say about this one? Obvious jokes aside, of course. Playing it straight, respondents would rather suffer the physical pain in the backside than the metaphorical one, at a rate of 53 percent to 31 percent. Again, Republicans here favored Congress over the ailment. Democrats would rather sit on a donut and take their medicine.
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| Tables that would normally be busy with people taking written tests are empty, seen through a window at a closed Department of Motor Vehicles office in Culver City, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) |
No. 2: The Department of Motor Vehicles
Believe it or not, people would rather wait in line at the DMV, too. But I suppose the people are just about as friendly. The poll put the DMV trolls at a whopping 58 percent over Congress' 24 percent – the second-highest margin of victory on the list.
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| People raise their hands to affirm they would attend jury duty at the Hillsborough County Courthouse Annex in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/St. Petersburg Times, Skip O' Rourke, Pool) |
No. 1: Jury duty
And jury duty – that great American "menace" that most of us, in fact, view more favorably than our elected representatives — 73 percent to 18 percent. So, I guess, the jury's not out on this one.
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