Lawmakers had much to think about when they returned from their summer break at the end of August. A Gallup poll revealed that the job approval rating for the Democrat-led Congress had dropped to 18 percent, the lowest rating since Gallup began tracking public opinion in 1974. When the Democrats took control of Congress in January the job approval rating was 35 percent. (It was 21 percent in December when the Republicans were in control.) It was no surprise that the two parties blamed one another for the low rating.
What remained to be seen when Congress resumed business was just how much public opinion would influence debates about war spending, a Democrat plan to expand the federal health insurance program for poor children and other issues. President Bush asked for $50 billion more to fund the Iraq war, a request that flies in the face of a Government Accountability Office report that the current undertaking meets only three of 18 Congressionally mandated benchmarks for military and political progress.
