Poll: Americans unhappy with Congress

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Just 14 percent of Americans approve of how Congress handled the debt-ceiling crisis, a New York Times/CBS News poll indicates.

Eighty-two percent disapproved of Congress' performance in the survey released Friday.

The debt-battle brought the United States within hours of defaulting on its obligations for the first time.

Seventy-four percent of those polled said members of Congress don't deserve to be re-elected.

Forty-seven percent of respondents disapproved of how President Barack Obama is doing his job and 46 percent voiced satisfaction.

Republicans fared worse than Democrats in the poll. Seventy-two percent of respondents disapproved of how Republicans handled the debt crisis; 66 percent disapproved of the Democrats' performance.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, had his popularity decline in the poll. Fifty-seven percent of respondents disapproved of how Boehner is doing his job in contrast to 41 percent in mid-April.

The telephone poll was conducted Aug. 2-3 with 960 adults across the United States. Its margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.