Democrats And Republicans Divided About How To Fix Congress

A new Gallup poll finds that while most Democrats and Republicans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, supporters of the two parties have very different ideas about how to fix Congress.

In response to an open-ended question, Democrats were most likely to suggest working across the aisle, with 25 percent recommending more bipartisan cooperation. The next most popular solution, firing every member of Congress, received support from 17 percent of Democrats. Another 15 percent of Democrats said Congress should be fixed by making representatives and senators more accountable to their constituents.

In contrast, 21 percent of Republicans said the best way to fix Congress would be to fire every member. Eighteen percent said term limits would be the best solution. Only 8 percent of Republicans said more bipartisan cooperation would be their recommendation for how to fix Congress.

In the full sample of adults, firing all members of Congress was also the most popular solution. Twenty-two percent of respondents supported that solution, while 14 percent said more bipartisan cooperation would be their recommendation for fixing Congress. Eleven percent selected term limits as the best solution, and another 9 percent said making members more accountable to their constituents would be the best way to fix Congress. All other proposed solutions received much lower levels of support.

The poll also found that only 15 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing. Democrats and Republicans in Congress were equally unpopular, with 16 percent of respondents approving of the job done by Democrats in Congress and 17 percent approving of the job done by Republicans.

HuffPost Pollster's average, which includes all publicly available polling, gives Congress an average 13 percent approval rating, with 70 percent disapproving.

The Gallup poll surveyed 1,013 adults by phone between July 7 and 10.