Republicans Don’t Like the GOP-Led Congress

A poll by Pew Research Center finds that despite the fact Republicans have taken control of both houses of Congress, our legislature is still not well-liked, even by Republicans.

In its poll, Pew discovered that Republican voters feel that the new GOP-led Congress is bending over for Obama’s agenda and not challenging him enough on the issues.

Over all, only 23 percent or respondents said that the Republicans are living up to their 2014 campaign promises to hold Obama’s feet to the fire. Fully 65 percent say the Republicans are failing at their job.

But Republicans in particular are also not pleased with what their representatives are doing. Only 41 percent approve of their leadership in Congress. By comparison, in April of 2011, 60 percent of Republicans approved of what their leaders were doing in Congress. Republicans were even happier in April of 1995 when a whopping 78 percent approved of their GOP reps.

Additionally, today, 53 percent of Republican respondents say that the party leadership is not fulfilling their promises.

Despite that their party is in control of Congress, Republicans are also not any more apt to feel that Congress is accomplishing all it should be. “Currently, Republicans (36%) are about as likely as Democrats (38%) or independents (38%) to say Congress is accomplishing less than they expected,” Pew reported.

Pew also found that Republican voters want the GOP to be more confrontational with Obama.

“Fully 75% of Republicans want GOP leaders to challenge Obama more often; just 15% say they are handling relations with the president about right and 7% say GOP leaders should go along with Obama more often.”

55 percent of Republican respondents said the disapprove of what the GOP is doing in Congress and among those who identify as conservative, the number is even worse. Only 41 percent say they approve of what the GOP is doing.

The numbers fall even farther on three key individual issues among the Republicans Pew polled. Only 35 percent feel the GOP leadership is doing well on spending, a low 34 percent like what the GOP is doing on illegal immigration, and only 29 percent approve of how the GOP is taking on same-sex marriage.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.