House leaders’ mythical mandate has hurt Americans and the economy

Saturday, Aug. 13, 2011 | 2 a.m.

Members of Congress — especially Republicans who claim a popular mandate — should take note of two polls that were recently released. The polls show that people aren’t happy with the way things are going in Congress.

A USA Today/Gallup poll on Monday reported that only 56 percent of people surveyed say their representatives in Congress should be re-elected. That’s similar to the response in 1994, 2006 and 2010 — elections that shifted power in Congress.

A CNN/ORC International poll released Tuesday showed even worse numbers for incumbents. It said that just 41 percent of Americans say their member of the House of Representatives should be re-elected. That’s the lowest number in the poll’s history.

“That 41 percent, in the polling world, is an amazing figure. Throughout the past two decades, in good times and bad, Americans have always liked their own member of Congress despite abysmal ratings for Congress in general,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. “Now anti-incumbent sentiment is so strong that most Americans are no longer willing to give their own representative the benefit of the doubt. If that holds up, it could be an early warning of an electorate that is angrier than any time in living memory.”

Indeed. Republicans rode a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment to win control of the House in last year’s election and claimed a mandate. Carrying the Tea Party’s extremist agenda, they said voters put them in office to slash government and taxes. But they misunderstood what people wanted.

As we have noted before, the message voters sent in the last election is that, first and foremost, they want Washington to work. They haven’t seen that happen with Republicans’ obstinate demands that have caused gridlock in Congress. In the debt-ceiling negotiations, Republican leaders in Congress repeatedly refused to compromise and balked at long-term solutions that would include raising revenue.

The way the House Republicans conducted themselves during the debt-ceiling negotiations obviously played a major role in the poor poll numbers. The CNN/ORC poll says the number of people who have a favorable view of the Republican Party has dropped by 8 percentage points in the past month, and now just 33 percent of people see the GOP favorably. Only 31 percent of the people see the Tea Party favorably, down 6 percentage points from last month. In comparison, the Democratic Party’s favorable rating went up 2 percentage points to 47 percent.

Republicans could be in for more trouble. The CNN/ORC poll shows that people want the new 12-member debt-reduction committee to raise revenue and make cuts. The poll said 62 percent of the people want to see the committee recommend raising taxes on the rich and major corporations. But don’t expect Republicans to follow suit: All six Republicans appointed to the committee have signed a no-new-taxes pledge, and the party has made tax cuts for the rich and major corporations sacrosanct.

As the nation saw in the debt-ceiling debate, Republican demands have only hurt the nation. Republicans have claimed a populist mantle, but that’s clearly not true. They should start listening to real people, not just the Tea Party.