Cockroaches And Dog Poop More Popular Than Congress

There's been no shortage of polls out in the last few days showing that Congress has a poor approval rating. Public Policy Polling found that only 8% of voters approve of the job it's doing compared to 85% who disapprove.

In an effort to get some more perspective on those terrible approval numbers though, PPP tested Congress head to head with a couple dozen dubious things to see what came out ahead and for the most part the results for Congress aren't too hot.

Congress doesn't stack up well at all compared to other governmental institutions. There may be long lines at the DMV, but voters still have a higher opinion of it than Congress by a 58/24 margin. Jury duty might disrupt your work week, but people will still take that over Congress by a 73/18 spread. Perhaps worst for Congress is that it actually manages to lose out to the IRS 42/33- there's a big partisan divide on that one with Democrats taking the IRS 59/23, but Republicans taking Congress 48/25.

Hemorrhoids, toenail fungus, dog poop, and cockroaches all might be a little bit gross- but they're all more popular than Congress. Hemorrhoids beat out Congress 53/31 with bipartisan support. On the other three there's a partisan split- Republican voters go for Congress while Democrats take the alternative but overall it's a 47/40 victory for dog poop, a 44/41 one for toenail fungus, and a 44/42 triumph for cockroaches.

Now the news is not all bad for Congress. It's at least still more popular than serial killers (56/18 over Charles Manson), foreign enemies (51/22 over Syria, 49/28 over Vladimir Putin), and controversial celebrities (46/31 over Miley Cyrus, 42/33 over Honey Boo Boo, and 40/36 over Lindsey Lohan). Democrats at least take Honey Boo Boo and Lindsey Lohan over Congress, but Miley, well she's on her own. Congress also outpolls heroin (53/24), Anthony Weiner (50/23), the Ebola virus (47/28), and twerking (37/33).

Alas the list of things voters like more than Congress is a longer one. Much derided mothers in law (64/20), public radio fundraising drives (60/25), and even Wall Street (46/15) all do better than Congress by at least a 30 point margin. It's also only appropriate for Halloween month that witches (46/32) and zombies (43/37) outpoll Congress as well.

But perhaps the greatest indignity of all indignities...PPP found in May that Americans absolutely hate hipsters. But give voters a choice? They'll take the hipsters over Congress 42/33. But maybe you knew that, like 2 years ago.

Full poll results can be found here.