You know it's a slow news day (week/fortnight) when a poll telling us how much we hate Congress (again) leads the major news sites.
But here we are again, reflecting on another (politically) wasted year, and here I am riffing on it because I'm just as mired in the post-Christmas blues as everyone else.
At least it looks that way after parsing through these poll results. The CNN/ORC International poll shows nearly three-quarters of voters declare the 113th a "do-nothing'" Congress. And even more damning, roughly two-thirds of respondents said this particular Congress is "the worst in their lifetime."
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And the universal accord — something rarely found in Congress itself — appears to cross all demographics.
"That sentiment exists among all demographic and political subgroups. Men, women, rich, poor, young, old — all think this year's Congress has been the worst they can remember," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "Older Americans — who have lived through more congresses — hold more negative views of the 113th Congress than younger Americans. Republicans, Democrats and independents also agree that this has been the worst session of Congress in their lifetimes."
According to analysis by major news organizations, this Congress has only passed 60 laws so far, which puts it on track to be the least productive in decades.
And what's maybe the most depressing stat in the entire study, neither party has much of the public's confidence when it comes to actually addressing the country's problems.
About 52 percent of respondents said Democrats would head us down the wrong path while 54 percent believe the same about the GOP.
Nevertheless, the poll shows Republicans with a slight, five-point edge as we head into a midterm election year. That's a 13-point swing from October.
Overall, there are a couple of ways to look as this. For starters, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing if Congress doesn't do all that much, especially if most of what they do consists of raising taxes or coming up with more strangling regulations. Even when they're active, it's not usually in such a way that benefits most of us.
But, on the other hand, they are there to do a job. And it just seems inherently wrong to pay their salaries for them to sit around and bicker while not actually getting much actual work done.
Finally, it's pretty clear that Obamacare hasn't just tarnished the president's image. That rollout was a textbook example of federal mismanagement and execution, and it probably soured more than a few people on big government. Now, if only the smaller government crowd could get out of its own way.
A final note: Just after writing this, the House voted to adjourn for the year. Again, the news stirs mixed feelings. It's a shame its probably paid time off.
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