At the end of August, Rasmussen Reports released data from a poll it conducted on the approval rating of Congress. The poll found that an incredibly anemic 9 percent of Americans surveyed felt that Congress was doing an excellent or fair job. You heard right – only 9 percent of Americans approve of the way Congress is doing its job! This is the lowest approval rating of any Congress since the statistic was first kept track of in the 1970s; and it was taken before Congress passed Bush’s Big Bank Bailout Boondoggle so does not reflect a probable even lower view of Congress today.
With these poll numbers most Americans agree that Congress is not doing its job. But, let’s be honest: the current Congress is a rotten, stinking corpse. It has worked against the will of the American people, legislated against the best interests of our country, and totally abdicated its sacred responsibilities by giving the President, Treasury Secretary, and Federal Reserve chief carte blanche in further ruining our economy, all in the name of political expediency and campaign contributions.
Take the $800 bailout package, for instance. Congress passed this measure in the face of at least 70 percent opposition from the American people. Whatever happened to representative government? It was discarded for campaign contributions. The Washington watchdog group, Center for Responsive Politics, reported that the senators who voted for the bailout have received, on average, contributions to their campaigns totaling $3,986,723 since 1989 – this is 139 percent more than was received by those senators opposing the bailout over the same time period. To give a specific example: Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut supported the bailout while receiving nearly $10 million from the finance sector over his career; Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont opposed the bailout while receiving just $167,045 while in Congress.
Article comments
1 - Cannonshop
Good sentiment but...
not gonna happen.
2 - Dave Nalle
If you go to the Republican Liberty Caucus site you can find complete lists of who opposed the bailout in congress and which of them changed their vote the second time through. That should give a clear idea of who not to vote out while you vote ALL the rest out.
Dave
3 - Baronius
I understand the frustration. For conservatives, this feels like the Maginot Line. We lined up to protect the health care industry, and they took over the banks instead.