The 113th Congress has just begun, but already its lawmakers have their work cut out. Aside from big decisions looming on the budget, they are incredibly unpopular. Just how unpopular are they? In a Public Policy Polling survey released this week, Congress was less popular than root canals, traffic jams, Brussels sprouts and other universal dislikes. People preferred head lice three times more than Congress, and almost twice as much as colonoscopies. How can Congress improve its lot? We asked some groups that rated higher than Congress on the survey to give their advice.
Used car salesman (preferred 57-32) Car sales still suffer from past misdeeds. "Back in the day, people are getting ripped off on payment and interest rates. People who were leasing weren't told about the models and the penalties," says Frank Aparicio, internet and fleet manager at Puente Hills Subaru in California. "They all think we're liars, cheaters and thieves." That sounds pretty similar to the American opinion of Congress. So how can they turn it around? "Customer service," says Aparicio. "Any customer service business, even our government, is supposed to be there for the people to find out what the problem is and get to the end goal - in car sales, it would be to get a certain price, get a certain product." In government, it's finding practical solutions to big problems.
He also notes the importance of telling customers what's best for them in the long run. "They may come in thinking they want one car, but when I hear what they need I'll point them to another," he says. Good advice, it seems, for Congress members too eager to play to their party's base. Genghis Khan (preferred 41-37) Khan gets a bad rap as a brutal marauder, but life under the Mongol warlord was pretty comfortable. "He built no palace for himself, no temple, no tomb, no monument. All the wealth went to his people, beginning with widows and orphans first," according to Jack Weatherford, author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. So perhaps Congress should increase entitlements? But wait!
"He ended taxes for priests, doctors, and teachers, and he reduced taxes for anyone who was literate, had a craft or any other skill," writes Weatherford in an email to the BBC. So perhaps Congress should also cut taxes. But US lawmakers are stuck at an impasse these days because they can't do both - and considering their track record, invading wealthy nations to finance this largesse, as Khan did, is out of the question. DC political pundits(preferred 37-34) The chattering class of DC pundits is a frequent target for ridicule. These journalists and analysts try to predict the outcome of elections and interpret the will of the politicians they cover, then follow up by making excuses for why they got it so wrong.
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BBC News - If used car salesman ran Congress
