Congress: 5 percent approval rating, Americans find the Tea Party to be a ‘gang of malcontents’

October 9, 2013

By Anomaly

Polling for Republicans isn’t faring too well for their party. Of course, that’s not to say that Democrats and President Obama aren’t taking a hit too, but public anger is largely directed toward Congressional Republicans.
Ted Cruz is an interesting player in all of this, since he recently said that he has not ‘remotely hurt’ the GOP’s image.

The AP reports:

The Associated Press-GfK survey, out Wednesday, affirms expectations by many in Washington — Republicans among them — that the GOP may end up taking the biggest hit in public opinion from the fiscal paralysis, just as that party did when much of the government closed 17 years ago. But the situation is fluid nine days into the shutdown and there’s plenty of disdain to go around. Overall, 62 percent mainly blamed Republicans for the shutdown. About half said Obama or the Democrats in Congress bear much responsibility.
63 percent of the public believes Republicans are not doing enough to negotiate compared with 52 percent who believe President Obama isn’t doing enough. Sen. Ted Cruz, credited by many as being the driving force behind the GOP’s shutdown strategy, is only known by half the public, but among those who do know him, twice as many view him unfavorably as favorably.
…
The poll found that the tea party is more than a gang of malcontents in the political landscape, as its supporters in Congress have been portrayed by Democrats. Rather, it’s a sizable — and divisive — force among Republicans. More than 4 in 10 Republicans identified with the tea party and were more apt than other Republicans to insist that their leaders hold firm in the standoff over reopening government and avoiding a default of the nation’s debt in coming weeks.

Do you hear that sound? That’s the GOP/Tea Party digging their own grave. Solidarity for gravediggers!
Republicans refuse to shoulder responsibility for their own actions after screaming for a shutdown for years. If they own it and fix the mess, then watch the approval rating go back up. But that won’t happen.
There are consequences for the toxic actions the Tea Party has unleashed upon this country. We’re all witnessing the results, some of America is hurting because of them, not receiving welfare checks, nor are our fallen soldiers’ families getting benefits to help with funerals, which our country owes them.