Off the wire
1st LD: At least 10 killed in Boko Haram attack on Nigeria-Cameroon border town: security source  • News Analysis: Further tensions with Palestinians expected if full rightwing gov't formed in Israel  • Austrian unemployment rises slightly after new calculation method  • Urgent: Gold up after Fed policy meeting  • FLASH: BOKO HARAM KILL AT LEAST 10 IN ATTACK ON NIGERIA-CAMEROON BORDER TOWN -- SECURITY SOURCE  • Former secretary general of Sierra Leone's ruling party named as new Vice President  • Number of full-time jobs in Austria decreases in 2014  • Urgent: Oil prices retreat on profit taking  • Bus accident kills 7, injures 48 in Tanzania's national park  • Luxury Vancouver home sales surge to new level  
You are here:   Home

Spotlight: Republican-controlled Congress scores bad in poll

Xinhua, March 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Two months into their full control of both chambers of U.S. Congress, Republicans have so far failed to match up to their promise of delivering a better job than Democrats.

According to the CNN/ORC poll released on Thursday, 74 percent of Americans disapprove of how Republican leaders in Congress are handling their jobs. The approving rate was worse than in March 2011, when 64 percent said they disapproved of Republican leadership couples of months after the Republicans snatched control of the House of Representatives from their Democratic rivals.

The CNN/ORC poll also found that 63 percent of Americans raise their eyebrows at Congressional Democrats' performance.

Contrary to the prevailing negative impression of Congress, U.S. President Barack Obama fared far better in job approval ratings, with 52 percent said they have a favorable opinion of him. It was the first time that Obama's favorability rating rose above 50 percent in CNN/ORC polls since November 2012.

The poll result could further embarrass Republican leaders in both chambers, who weeks ago pledged jointly in an interview with the U.S. TV networks CBS News that the current 114th Congress under the leadership of the Republican party would get serious legislations done.

"The Senate has been essentially dysfunctional for four years ( under the Democratic leadership)," said the new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in the interview aired on Jan. 25. "I mean, it's basically been shut down."

However, the episode of awkwardly escaping from the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) due to partisan gridlock over Obama's contested 2014 immigration policies delivered a heavy blow to the Republican leadership.

Instead of showing their managing prowess, the DHS funding issue laid bare deep division among House Republicans and for once even pitted House Republican leadership against their Republican colleagues in the Senate, with the Democratic party acting like a model of unity.

Meanwhile, the ongoing spat over the confirmation vote of U.S. Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch within the Senate was believed by many as a further proof that the dysfunctional Republican party was failing to govern.

Though having vowed last week that the delayed Lynch confirmation vote would occur sometime this week, McConnell reneged at the weekend, saying that Lynch "will be put off again" till the Senate Democrats cooperated in a human trafficking bill.

The bill initially gained bipartisan support. However, the Democrats later accused the Republicans of slipping in the bill hostile language to block federal funding for abortion programs without consulting them. The bill was blocked by Senate Democrats repeatedly, deja vu of what happened last month during the DHS funding crisis.

The Senate Republicans dismissed the accusation, insisting that the controversial language concerning abortion funding was part of the bill from the very beginning. Endite