9% Approval Rating for Congress: The Reasons?

by John Blythe

Originally Posted on Independent Word

Well you gotta love it! A recent Rasmussen poll shows that Congress’ approval rating is tied at an all time low of just 9%. It’s pretty pathetic.

One must ask why our Congressional leaders, the people we elect to represent us and to establish policy and law, are universally hated by almost everyone in America.

Certainly, Congressman Anthony Weiner’s little fraternity act exposing X-rated pictures of himself doesn’t help the reputation of the now irrelevent Congress. It also doesn’t help that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is calling for an ethics investigation for Weiner, still won’t force him to resign, even though the pressure is mounting. This is the same Nancy Pelosi who vowed to “drain the swamp” in Washington and the same Nancy Pelosi, when she was elected as Speaker of the House in 2006, wanted to have “the most honest, ethical and transparent Congress in our nation’s history.”

I suppose the American people are remembering some of this bull crap and realize that Mrs. Pelosi plays the game of double standards. Interestingly, the same Rasmussen poll showed that 42% of Americans believe members of Congress are simply corrupt. Indeed they appear to be.

Additionally, Speaker John Boehner, who voters sent a very clear message to back in November, is seemingly doing nothing about improving the way Congress conducts business.

It seems that both the House and the Senate simply don’t care about the Constitution anymore, nor do they care about promoting basic American values. So while Congressman Weiner and Congressman Chris Lee before him, put photos of themselves exposed on the internet, we have a President that is acting like a mini-dictator, a crippled economy, tens of millions of Americans out of work, the housing market at an all time low, a Federal Reserve rapidly inflating our currency, $14 trillion in national debt, a war in Libya that nobody even knows why we’re there in the first place and Obama Care which was shoved down the country’s throat last year.

Interestingly, Congress has authority over all of these issues. When the framers of the Constitution established a legislature, it was Congress who is supposed to be the dominate force of government in America with authority over the President. Unfortunately, what has happened over time is that Presidents have largely rubberstamped their own party in Congress to set an agenda, rather than for the fundamental good of the American people. If any of our current members of Congress read the Constitution, they would understand this, but apparently they’re too busy taking lewd pictures of themselves.

If Congress sincerely wants to achieve a better approval rating, then maybe they should start exercising the authority granted to them in the Constitution. First of all, start supporting business and capitalism in America instead of outsourcing jobs to China or anywhere else. Congress should re-stablish good regulation on commerce and Wall Street to prevent another meltdown of the economy and the scapegoating of millionaire banking executives. Allow an internal audit of the Federal Reserve to see where money has trickled down to over the last 90 plus years, in addition to the bailout and TARP program. As to the War in Libya, if a President authorizes air strikes on any sovereign nation that is not a threat to national security and done so without Congressional approval, it is simply a violation of the U.S. Constitution, regardless of the War Powers Act. Why is the President not undergoing impeachment proceedings? And Obama Care? More than two thousand pages long? Here’s an idea: Read the damn bill!

Quite frankly, I am disgusted with Speaker Boehner, the Republican controlled House and the Democratic controlled Senate. When Boehner said that America had sent a clear message to Congress in November and things would change, we all believed him. As usual, nothing changes. And the members of Congress talk about these ridiculous ideas of submitting proposals to solve our country’s problems with a straight face and we believe them. Are we morons?

Maybe we are morons. After all, we keep re-electing the same ineffective, non-productive people to Washington that have been destroying our country. In some regard, I would say that Congress is responsible for generating a 9% approval rating, because they don’t listen to the people that elect them to office. On the otherhand, why do we keep re-electing them, if they’re not doing anything?

The United States of America, once the largest economy in the world, has now diminished so rapidly, because these jackasses in Washington refuse to do anything. It is an absolute pathetic disgrace.