WASHINGTON — After the U.S. avoided a government budget crisis in the nick of time for the third time this year, the public seems fed up with the nonstop partisanship that led to the close calls.
Rising public disgust turns up in poll after poll that shows Congress’ approval ratings far lower than President Barack Obama’s. Weighing down his own numbers are a teetering economy and dour jobless numbers.
Yet the political grandstanding is likely to continue, even grow. At the heart of every major standoff this year is a deep philosophical disagreement on the size and role of government. There are sharp disagreements on spending cuts and taxes, and on whether deficit reduction or more spending to prod a flailing recovery is a higher priority.
These are arguments sure to reverberate more loudly as the presidential election nears.
“I think this thing continues until next November’s election,” said James Thurber, a political scientist at American University. “With the campaign started, it’s very hard to stop it.”
As to the current state of political polarization, Thurber said: “There are very few people in the middle who are moderate and who can bring about compromises. And that creates an environment where you have this crisis approach to even fairly small issues.”
Some 82 percent of people disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job, according to a Gallup poll released this week. The survey also shows record or near-record criticism of elected officials in general, government handling of domestic problems, the scope of government power and government waste of money.
The poll results may reflect the shared political power arrangement, with Democrats controlling the White House and the Senate and Republicans in charge of the House. “Partisans on both sides can thus find fault with government without necessarily blaming their own party,” said Lydia Saad, senior Gallup poll editor.
A budget deadlock that raised the risk of a government shutdown this weekend was apparently broken when the Senate approved a short-term measure to fund the government through Nov. 18.
The Senate also passed a one-week spending bill, which the House was expected to approve Thursday. Next week, the House will debate the longer-term Senate measure keeping the government running through Nov. 18. House leaders have voiced support for the measure and Republican conservatives have not lodged objections.
The most recent fight had been over a relatively small amount of emergency disaster aid money and whether it should be offset, as tea-party influenced House Republicans want, by corresponding cuts in other programs.
