Last picked for prom

Turns out Congress is not nearly as popular as its boyfriend SCHIP - 75% of Americans disapprove of Congress's handling of its job, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll. 22 of every 100 people think they're doing a good job (versus about a 33% approval for Bush at the moment).

This quote from the CNN article about the poll intrigued me, though:

The big issues of the day just don't seem to be being addressed," said Sarah Binder, a political science professor at George Washington University who studies Congress. "The issues that matter most to people -- the economy, health care, the environment and the larger war in Iraq -- it is so difficult for Congress to move on those issues that I believe the public looks and says, 'Why aren't they doing anything?'"

Are those the issues that matter most to people? I found a site that synthesises a lot of recent polls. Economy? Yes, that's generally in the top three. Health care? Yup, that one's up there. The "larger war in Iraq" (an odd characterization, since the "larger war" is generally thought to be the war on terror, whereas the war in Iraq happens to be the single largest and most well-known theater of that war) is, without fail, the number 1 issue sited as being important in each of the polls here.

Environment? Irrelevant. The most recent CBS poll listed has 2% of people saying it's the most important issue for presidential candidates. Doesn't merit a mention in the next poll down about the "most important problem facing this country today." Poll after poll shows it to be way down on the list of priorities.

In the next week or so, Congress will begin marking up a new global warming bill that would have disastrous effects on the economy with marginal-to-zero impact on the state of our biosphere. Real People get it, whether or not they can articulate it. Why must the politicians and academics like Ms. Binder continue to force an issue that the American public does not want the government dealing with?