58% of Americans Believe the Country Would Be No Different or Better Off If Congress Met Every Two Years

The latest Reason-Rupe poll finds Americans remain unimpressed by Congress and its performance. When asked how respondents would rate Congress' job performance, approval barely reached 17%. 18% say they neither approve nor disapprove, and a resounding 61% say they disapprove of Congress' performance.

When asked if respondents believed they would be better off, worse off, or no different if Congress were in session every other year, the most common response at 42% was no different. 36% of Americans thought they would be worse off and 16% said they would be better off. This also indicates that if Congress were to meet every other year, 58% believe there would be no difference or that the country would be better off.

Democrats were most concerned that Congress meeting every two years would make the country worse off, with 42%. In contrast, only 26% of Tea Party supporters agreed and 29% thought the country would be better off compared to 12% of Democrats. Across all political groups except Democrats, the plurality response was that Congress meeting every two years would be no different than it meeting each year.

Note: Tea Party supporters reported they were "very favorable" to the Tea Party movement. Non-TP Republicans self-identified as Republican and were not Tea Party supporters. Independents only included Independents who did not lean Republican or Democratic. Democrats self-identified as such.

Across education groups, besides post-graduates, the most common response to Congress meeting every two years was there would be no difference. Only those with post-graduate degrees were most likely to say the country would be worse off.

You can read the full poll results here.