No improvement in U.S. Congress approval amid popularity surge of political outsiders: poll

A mere 13 percent of Americans approve of the job the U.S. Congress is doing, just four points above the record low of 9 percent in November 2013, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.

This comes at a time when political outsiders - namely bombastic billionaire Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders - are seeing their popularity skyrocket in the race to White House, amid widespread discontent with the Washington elite and a pervading sense that politicians do not represent ordinary Americans.

Indeed, Sanders of the Democratic Party on Tuesday won the Michigan primary in a major upset against rival Hillary Clinton, at a time when the senator is drawing major support from millenials, who have felt the brunt of the weak U.S. economy.

At the same time, Trump has been speeding through the primaries like a freight train, winning several states, with a real shot at clinching the Republican Party nomination.

Indeed, both Congress' lack of popularity and the draw of political outsiders reflect Americans' deep-seated feeling that the country is going in the wrong direction. These developments also occur as the U.S. economy continues to putter along even years after the 2008 crash, having never seen the type of robust rebound that is typical of virtually every post-WWII recession.

Approval of Congress has not generally been high, averaging 32 percent since Gallup began measuring it in 1974. Americans' views of the country's legislative body reached a high of 84 percent after the terror attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, which sparked a rally in patriotism and support for U.S. leadership.

But those sentiments generally waned over the course of former President George W. Bush's administration, which launched the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Though Congressional approval received a temporary boost at the beginning of U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, it plummeted and hit a record low of 9 percent in November 2013 in the aftermath of the federal government shutdown, Gallup said.

Congressional approval has reached 20 percent or higher only three times since 2012: in February of last year, shortly after Republicans took control of the Senate; at the time of the 2014 midterm elections; and just before the 2012 presidential election, Gallup found.

As has been the case in recent months, Americans of all political stripes give Congress similarly low approval ratings. Currently, 16 percent of Democrats, 13 percent of Republicans and 10 percent of independents approve, Gallup found.

The U.S. Congress is in a unique spotlight this election season, as three senators -- Sanders of Vermont, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Marco Rubio of Florida are running for president. All three are struggling hard to stay in the race now.

In presidential election years, U.S. Congress typically does not undertake much substantive action as members look ahead to a potential change in the political makeup of the federal government after the election, Gallup found.

That dynamic was made clear after the recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, with Senate Republicans giving a strong indication they will not consider a potential replacement until a new president takes office.

With Congress unlikely to pass major legislation this year, the chances of its approval rating improving are slim, though there is little room for it to get worse, Gallup said. Endit