Poll: Voter Discontent With Congress Reaches New High

With midterm elections just several months away, the Democratic-controlled Congress is facing record high disapproval ratings, according to a new Rasmussen poll.

Seventy one percent of voters say Congress is doing a poor job, the highest level recorded by Rasmussen Reports and 10 percentage points up from the previous high of 61 percent reached last month. Only 10 percent of voters gave Congress high marks.

Congress received poor ratings not only from Republican voters and independents, but also 48 percent of Democrats, up 17 percentage points from January.

The report comes as Democrats push for a jobs bill and prepare to take what may be a final shot at passing a sweeping health care reform bill that has been in hot debate for the past year.

Just 41 percent of voters favor the plan while 56 percent are opposed, the report found. A majority of voters, 63 percent, say a better strategy to remake the health care system would be to pass smaller bills that tackle problems individually.

Democrats hold majorities in both the House and the Senate, but 70 percent of voters say Congress has not passed any legislation that would significantly improve life for Americans, the report says, up 10 percentage points over the past month and the highest level of dissatisfaction measured in regular tracking in more than three years. A mere 15 percent say Congress has passed such legislation.

Matching a recent low in December, only 9 percent of voters believe most members of Congress are genuinely interested in helping people. But setting a new multi-year high, 81 percent say most lawmakers are more concerned with their own careers.

Click here to read the Rasmussen report.