A new USA Today/Princeton Research poll released yesterday reports serious discontent with the US Congress. An impressive 47% say that Congress would be “better off” if most members were replaced.
The number is slightly higher among GOP and lean GOP respondents, with 52% reporting they think Congress would be better off if most of the current members were replaced. Curiously, the USA Today article reporting the poll findings did not provide the same metric for Democrat respondents.
The new survey also points out that the GOP bears most of the responsibility for the government shut down in the mind of the public. Thirty-nine percent place the blame for the shutdown on the Republicans, while half of that (19%) say the Democrats deserve most of the blame. Thirty-six percent say both parties share the blame equally.
Whether these results will have any effect on the 2014 congressional election, more than a year away, remains to be seen. In general, voters have a much more negative opinion about Congress in the abstract than they have of their own congressional representative. The USA Today/Princeton poll was taken by 1001 adults, with an MOE of +/-4.