According to a pair of new polls, one from the
New York Times and CBS (
pdf) and the other from NBC and
Wall Street Journal (
pdf), most Americans disapprove of the job President Barack Obama is doing and give low marks to Congress as well.
President Obama's approval has reached a new low in the NBC/WSJ survey, with just 43 percent approving of his performance and 54 percent disapproving, a drop from 42/51 in late October. According to the NYT/CBS survey, Obama's approval is at 42 percent with 50 percent disapproving, up significantly from his 37/57 rating in mid-November, but down from his 46/49 rating in mid-October.
Although the NBC/WSJ poll showed Obama's numbers weakening since their previous survey and the NYT/CBS poll showed them improving, that's not an apples-to-apples trend line comparison because the previous NBC/WSJ survey was conducted a bit more than six weeks ago while the previous NYT/CBS survey was conducted a little more than three weeks ago. However, as noted above, there was an NYT/CBS survey conducted in mid-October, just a few days before the previous NBC/WSJ survey, and the president's numbers are down from that, so it's possible that while the president is down from his mid-October approval levels, things are beginning to improve.
According to the NYT/CBS poll, 39 percent support the Affordable Care Act and 50 percent oppose it, which is close to the 43/51 split in mid-October but better than the 31-61 split in mid-November. According to the NBC/WSJ poll, 34 percent say it was a good idea and 50 percent say it was a bad idea, down from a 37/47 split in late-October. According to the poll, Obamacare is the dominant issue shaping opinions of the president, with 58 percent saying it was the most important factor in their opinion of him.
As gloomy as Obama's numbers look, things are worse for Congress. According to the NYT/CBS poll, 10 percent approve of the job Congress is doing and 83 percent disapprove. According to NBC/WSJ, 79 percent say this Congress is below average (28 percent) or one of the worst in history (51 percent), worse than the 58 percent negative rating it got in December 2009 and 75 percent negative rating it got in December 2011.
NYT/CBS did not release numbers on partisan favorability or generic ballots, but according to the NBC/WSJ survey, 44 percent say they want Republicans to take control of Congress after next year's midterms compared with 42 percent who say they want Democrats, a drop from a four point advantage in late-October. Despite those numbers, the Republican brand is in worse shape than the Democratic brand, with the GOP getting a net 25 point negative rating compared with an 8 point negative rating for Democrats.