by Blackberry Evers

Created on: May 06, 2008

Indeed Congress' approval rating as an institution is lower than President Bush's, but this is not new or an anomaly; this is a fact, not an argument. President Bush's approval rating is at all time lows and that is the story - not vis-a-vis Congress. GW Bush now has outpaced his father post-Gulf War in presidential approval lows. (Mind you that approval and disapproval are not symmetric - polls ask 'do you approve of the job the president is doing?' and 'do you disapprove of the job the president is doing?'. Although, some polls do ask 'do you approve or disapprove...?')

With regard to the president versus Congress, Congress' approval rating over the past few decades has been consistently lower than the president - regardless of party or how well the president is "performing." The situation has been coined by Hibbing and Theiss-Moore's in their various works as 'people love their congressperson, but hate Congress.' This is quite simple to understand. Congress as an institution stands as a singular symbol of government waste, fraud, and twiddling thumbs over policy while Americans suffer. It is like how people hate "bureaucracy," even though nearly everything can be considered a bureaucracy and we all participate in it. The contrast is that Americans love their member of Congress. Members provide services and projects for their districts - 'pork' - that benefit constituents in numerous ways. This local funding is viewed as necessary services, while the same funding for other districts is viewed as waste. When constituents see their member voting their perspective on bills, they view it as good. At the same time, constituents see other members voting against them as creating bad public policy and potential gridlock. And so, Americans hate the idea of Congress, benefit from its policies, and love their member of Congress.

There is actually not much to debate here. Congress' approval always hovers at low levels, while the president's approval will vary depending on a number of items including the stage of the president's term (e.g., honeymoon or lame duck), rally around the flag events (e.g., war, 9/11), the economy, and other nature of the times issues. The effect on public policy balancing is that Congress has more power than the president in policy outcomes when the president's approval is low. At the very least, when presidential approval is low, he (or potentially she in the future) can't push through any policy.

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