Jeffrey Jones reports for Gallup on an interesting poll. Which party do Americans want to control Congress based on who wins the White House?
A majority (52-42) does not want a repeat of 2009-2010, when the Democrats had the White House and Congress. That gave us, among other things, the Orwellian-named Affordable Care Act, rammed through Congress unexamined and without a single Republican vote, on the explicit premise that Congress had to pass it so we could find out what was in it. Now we know, in spades. The poll result is nearly evenly split if Trump actually pulls is off, with a very narrow plurality preferring the Republicans control Congress (48-46).
Why the difference? For one thing, Trump is not an orthodox conservative and would not be working hand-in-glove with the Republican leaders in Congress, so a stampede of ill-advised legislation is less likely. For another, the bad legislation that needs fixing is nearly all Democrat-passed bills left over from the time when they had complete control, with Obamacare at the top of the list. When you hear liberals rant, how often are they talking about bad (in their view) legislation that needs to be repealed or at least overhauled? Not often. They rant about other things. A period of full Republican control is needed to clean out the Augean stables, but there is no corresponding need on the other side.
The overall result is driven almost entirely by independents, with Republicans and Democrats wanting their party to control Congress regardless. No surprise there.
A majority (52-42) does not want a repeat of 2009-2010, when the Democrats had the White House and Congress. That gave us, among other things, the Orwellian-named Affordable Care Act, rammed through Congress unexamined and without a single Republican vote, on the explicit premise that Congress had to pass it so we could find out what was in it. Now we know, in spades. The poll result is nearly evenly split if Trump actually pulls is off, with a very narrow plurality preferring the Republicans control Congress (48-46).
Why the difference? For one thing, Trump is not an orthodox conservative and would not be working hand-in-glove with the Republican leaders in Congress, so a stampede of ill-advised legislation is less likely. For another, the bad legislation that needs fixing is nearly all Democrat-passed bills left over from the time when they had complete control, with Obamacare at the top of the list. When you hear liberals rant, how often are they talking about bad (in their view) legislation that needs to be repealed or at least overhauled? Not often. They rant about other things. A period of full Republican control is needed to clean out the Augean stables, but there is no corresponding need on the other side.
The overall result is driven almost entirely by independents, with Republicans and Democrats wanting their party to control Congress regardless. No surprise there.
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