Americans to Congress: Do Your Job

Public frustration over gridlock, politics hits new highs
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 22, 2011 9:57 AM CST
Americans to Congress: Do Your Job
The U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. Partisan to the core, Congress careened toward a holiday-season standoff on legislation to prevent a Social Security payroll tax increase for 160 million workers on Jan. 1.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Congress has been extremely unpopular for some time, but Washington's inability to pass a payroll tax cut extension before adjourning for the holidays appears to have people disgusted like never before, reports the AP. "It's just another smack in our face for the working public. We just can't get ahead," said an Illinois construction worker. "I mean, I'm at a loss for words, and I just can't understand it, why they have to keep arguing."

"I truly believe that if the sides were reversed, if we had a Republican president and a Democratic Congress, we'd still be going through the same thing," said the owner of a building maintenance business. President Obama called on congressional leaders yesterday to come back from vacation and pass some version of the tax cut bill, even if only short-term, but so far no one appears willing to compromise. "It's us, the average Joe, that's getting caught in the middle," said a retiree in Connecticut. (More Congress stories.)

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