They needed to take a poll to find this out?

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Poll: Congress' new level of awfulness

Posted by CNN Political Unit, June 13, 2013

Americans' confidence in Congress as an institution has hit an all-time low, according to a new national poll.

Asked about a list of institutions in American society, only 10% of those questioned in a Gallup survey released Thursday say they have confidence in Congress. That's down three percentage points from last year, and according to their release, "this is the lowest level of confidence Gallup has found, not only for Congress, but for any institution on record."

Congress ranks last on a list of 16 institutions. At the top of the list: The U.S. military. Seventy-six percent say they have confidence in the armed forces. The presidency ranked fifth, at 36%.

Gallup's been asking this question since 1973. Back then 42% said they had confidence in Congress, which was the legislative body's high point. Confidence in Congress has been below 20% since 2006.

The poll indicates little partisan divide.

"Democrats, independents, and Republicans are about equally likely to express low confidence in Congress. This is a change from the past and likely reflects the split control of Congress," says the Gallup release.

The Democrats control the Senate and the Republicans control the House of Representatives.

This low level of confidence is in-line with the most recent polling over the couple of months of the approval rating for Congress, which stood between 11% and 17% in the various surveys.

The Gallup poll was conducted June 1-4, with 1,529 adults nationwide questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

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