Americans Predict GOP Controlled Congress Will Continue Gridlocked

Half of the Americans polled in a recent survey believe the control of both the House and Senate by the Republicans will be bad for the U.S. A majority also said Congress would have more gridlock.

However, the poll shows that the Republican Party brand has shown an improvement during the past year, and is now just slightly less popular than members of the Democratic Party.

The approval levels of the Democratic Party have stayed static.

According to this survey, 50% of those surveyed believe the Republican party taking control of the Senate and House in 2015 will be negative for the U.S. and 52% expect there to be even more gridlock.

Thirty-seven percent however expect there to be no difference in the amount of gridlock on Capitol Hill.

However, Americans believe the Republicans should be those that budge.

Of those polled, 68% said the GOP is not cooperating sufficiently with President Obama, while 57% said it was Obama who was not cooperating sufficiently with members of the GOP.

Democrats continued to be the more popular party of the two, but by very little. Forty-four percent looked at the Democratic Party in a favorable light, while 50% look at it unfavorably.

However, Republicans have comeback since October of 2013 by increasing their overall favorability by more than 11%.

At present, 41% of Americans look favorably at the Republican Party and 52% unfavorably.

Obama however has only 48% of the respondents seeing him in a favorable manner while 51% view the president unfavorably.

The persistently low approval level for Obama contributed to the resounding defeat his party suffered during the recent midterm elections, with the Republicans winning back control of the U.S. Senate.

The poll shows the great majority of those polled in the U.S. or 74%, saw the wins early in November by the Republicans as a direct repudiation of policies of the Democrats, which was far higher than the 16% that said it was a mandate for the GOP to pass their own.

One proposal Republicans are floating is not seen positively by Americans. Only 17% of those polled would see a government shutdown as no problem, while 20% would feel it is a crisis and 39% would consider it a major problem.