Job approval ratings for Congress and President Joe Biden remain low ahead of an impending government shutdown, according to polling data released Tuesday by Gallup.
As infighting among House Republican over an appropriations bill continues, Congress has less than three days to find the funds to keep the government running before the 12:01 a.m. deadline Sunday.
Just 17 percent of Americans, according the Gallup poll, approve of the way Congress is handling its job — a level consistent with the 16 to 23 percent ratings the lawmakers have received since October 2021.
Although there is a split among Republicans and Democrats on their approval of Congress, a large majority of people from both parties disapprove of Congress — 22 percent of Democrats approve of the job Congress is doing, while just nine percent of Republicans approve.
More than eight in 10 U.S. adults — 82 percent — disapprove of the job Congress is doing.
Republicans and Democrats remain strongly divided on their ratings of President Biden, however.
The Gallup poll found that 86 percent of Democrats, 39 percent of independents, and five percent of Republicans approve of Biden’s handing of the country — ratings which have stayed fairly consistent since January 2022.
President Biden told “Extreme House Republicans” to do their job and fund the government ahead of Sunday’s deadline in post to X, formerly Twitter, Wednesday.
“Funding the government is one of the most basic responsibilities of the Congress,” Biden said Wednesday at a campaign event in San Francisco. “And it’s time for the Republicans in the House of Representatives to stand up and do their job because the Republicans in the Senate, including the Senate leadership from Kentucky, are ready to stand up and work with a bipartisan agreement.”
Maine Gov. Janet Mills issued a similar statement to the president, blaming the impending shutdown on a minority bloc of conservative House members.
“It’s unconscionable that certain people, a minority of members of the House of Representatives, are holding up the federal budget is unconscionable,” Mills said, per WGME. “And it’s cruel, and it’s unnecessary.”
Meanwhile, the more conservative House Republicans, such as Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, have demanded an end to short-term spending bills, known as continuing resolutions, and have threatened to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) if he does not comply with their demands.
The Senate advanced a bipartisan stopgap bill Tuesday that would temporarily fund the government until Nov. 17.
The bill includes $6.15 billion for Ukraine, and is unlikely to receive support from the more conservative bloc of the House Republicans, and McCarthy has said he will not hold a vote on the measure.
If the government does shut down this weekend, millions of federal workers could go without pay — however, members of Congress will still receive their pay of $174,000 per year, as funding for their salaries come from an appropriations account independent of annual spending legislation.
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An observation from “The Conservative Treehouse”: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/09/29/something-necessary-to-understand-about-washington-dc/
Speaker McCarthy is doomed. There is no way out of this self-infected disaster without compromising with House Democrats and the U.S. Senate. That would cost the Speaker his job. The Speaker has stated he will only pass legislation without Democrat’s support.
This is no way to govern nor treat those in our military and their families, border agents, ICE, cancer patients, little children, or TSA, and the list goes on and on. What a complete and utter sh!t show.that never should happen.