Poll: Both parties in Congress draw negative ratings
By Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus, Kabir Khanna and Anthony Salvanto
The public is unhappy with the performance of both parties in Congress. And the midterms are a long way off, but the Democratic Party has not persuaded Americans that things in the country would be any better if they were in control, instead of the Republicans who hold the majority now.
Independents split on this idea, most Republicans (65 percent) not surprisingly think things would become worse, and even a third of Democrats don't think things would change.
Republicans are only a little more positive about how their party in Congress is doing than Democrats are about their members. Neither side gets high marks from independents, or Americans on the whole.
Some of Democrats' dissatisfaction with their own party is due to the feeling that congressional Democrats are not standing up to the president enough. Among Democrats overall, 45 percent disapprove of how Democrats in Congress are doing their job. But among Democrats who think Congressional Democrats aren't opposing Trump enough, 57 percent disapprove.
Across the aisle, six in ten Republicans want to see congressional Republicans do more to help President Trump, but one-third say they're already doing the right amount.
This poll was conducted by telephone June 15-18, 2017 among a random sample of 1,117 adults nationwide. Data collection was conducted on behalf of CBS News by SSRS of Media, PA. Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones.
The poll employed a random digit dial methodology. For the landline sample, a respondent was randomly selected from all adults in the household. For the cell sample, interviews were conducted with the person who answered the phone.
Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish using live interviewers. The data have been weighted to reflect U.S. Census figures on demographic variables.
The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus four percentage points. The error for subgroups may be higher and is available by request. The margin of error includes the effects of standard weighting procedures which enlarge sampling error slightly.
This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.