Approval of the job that lawmakers are doing in Congress dropped this month following the GOP’s failure to repeal Obamacare, according to the latest numbers from Gallup.
Congressional job approval fell from 28 percent in February to 20 percent this month. Approval was at a seven-year high in February after Trump's presidential inauguration, Gallup notes, adding that the April drop “was driven mainly by a loss of support among Republicans, whose approval fell from 50% two months ago to 31% in April.”
Gallup said the drop in support could be due to “failure by party leaders to fulfill campaign pledges on major pieces of legislation such as tax reform and healthcare.”
Most notably the drop could be tied to the failure that “occurred last month when House Speaker Paul Ryan could not unite the different factions within Republican ranks to pass a bill replacing the landmark Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.”
Historically, Americans have not had a very high opinion of Congress. Over the past 43 years that Gallup has measured it, a majority approved of Congress only 22 times, with an average 30 percent approval over time.
This latest poll is “based on telephone interviews conducted April 5-9, 2017, with a random sample of 1,019 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.”