Congress Less Popular Than Nickelback, Donald Trump And Head Lice: Poll

You know Congress is unpopular when head lice, traffic jams, NFL replacement refs and -- of all things -- the rock band Nickelback and real estate mogul Donald Trump score higher among American voters in a favorability poll than Congress.

Despite the 112th Congress' success in brokering a fiscal cliff deal last week, a new survey of 830 voters by Public Policy Polling, or PPP, found that the deal did nothing to change the negative views the public has of Congress. In a poll conducted between Thursday and Sunday, Congress scored an overall favorability rating of a mere 9 percent. Its unfavorable rating stands at 85 percent, according to PPP’s data.

The 112th Congress, which has been the most unpopular in decades, has had a consistently low favorability rating. Gallup found that its rating was 18 percent last November. This Congress has also been the least productive in recent memory in terms of the number of bills it has passed into law.

“We all know Congress is unpopular,” PPP President Dean Debnam said in a statement. “But the fact that voters like it even less than cockroaches, lice and Genghis Khan really shows how far its esteem has fallen with the American public over the last few weeks.”

But all is not lost.

While Congress fared no better than root canals or a colonoscopy, voters preferred it over John Edwards, the Kardashians, Lindsay Lohan, telemarketers, communism, Fidel Castro, North Korea, gonorrhea and meth labs, to name a few.

And here’s a list of things voters consider more favorably than Congress:

- Root canals (56-32)

- NFL replacement refs (56-29)

- Head lice (67-19)

- Nickelback (39-32)

- Colonoscopies (58-31)

- Washington political pundits (37-34)

- Carnies (39-31)

- Traffic jams (56-34)

- Cockroaches (45-43)

- Donald Trump (44-42)

- France (46-37)