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> incumbents have a greater than 90% reelection rate

Which is mind-boggling, considering that the Congress' approval rating is 12% ! Thing about it: only 12% of the people think that the Congress is doing a good job, and these people STILL get re-elected! Is it any wonder that we're in this mess?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/07/24/obama-congr...

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That's Congress's general approval rating, when you ask someone to nonspecifically rate "Congress". When you ask them to rate their own specific Congressperson (which is who they can vote for or against), approval averages around 45-50%, and rises to 60% among people who actually know the Representative's name [1]. So the average American strongly dislikes Representatives from other districts, but is okay with their own.

[1] http://www.gallup.com/poll/162362/americans-down-congress-ow...

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