Poll: Obama down, Congress down more

The percentage of Americans who disapprove of both the US Congress and President Barack Obama have reached new highs, a new poll shows.

According to the latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll, 84 percent of those polled say they disapprove of the performance of the Congress.

Only nine percent of Americans approve Congress’ performance — down from 21 percent last November.

The poll also shows that Obama’s approval ratings continue to decline. Just 38 percent of the respondents approved of his job performance, while 55 percent disapproved.

That’s the lowest approval and highest disapproval ratings the Heartland Monitor poll has ever recorded for Obama in the 19 times it has measured his standing since April 2009.

Moreover, just 23 percent said Obama’s agenda would increase opportunity for people like them to get ahead, while 47 percent said it would diminish their opportunities.

Obama’s low poll standing are attributed to a number of setbacks since the summer, including allegations of spying by the National Security Agency, the debate over military action in Syria, the government shutdown and the intense scrutiny over the problems with the federal healthcare law.

Meanwhile, optimism about the US system of government is at 30 percent, the lowest in 40 years, according to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released last month.

In that poll, just 29 percent said their congressional representative deserved re-election, while nearly three-quarters said Congress was contributing to the problems in Washington instead of working to solve them.