Hello everyone and welcome to the focus group podcast I'm Sarah

Longwell publisher of the full work and this week we are talking about an institution

less popular than New Coke and the Chrysler PT cruiser the United States

Congress.

With a couple of exceptions, Congress's approval rating has been mired in the teens and

20s for over a decade.

Because it's a dysfunctional retirement home of politicians who seem to take us from one near disaster to the next every few months.

And the Republican Congress in the House is one of the most dysfunctional we've ever seen in recent years.

In early 2023, it took Republicans recent years. In early 2023 it took Republicans 15 ballots to get

Kevin McCarthy across the finish line a Speaker of the House. He was out by

October and it took Republicans a month to settle on yet another speaker, Mike Johnson.

So I'm wondering how voters, particularly Republican voters, feel about their new and old congressional leadership.

My guest today is the Bullworks eyes and ears on Capitol Hill,

our national political reporter, Joe Hurticon.

What's up Joe? I'm doing great and I'm very happy to be on the

podcast. I'm happy to have you on first-timer. So you're killing it for us there on the

hill. Is it sad up there? Is it good? How you doing?

It's still fun because it's what I love doing. But it is the dumbest it has ever been.

Just tell us how long you've been dealing with the hill? I'm coming up on year 10 this spring since I've been

in DC and I've covered Congress in some way or another for most of that time.

I started when John Boehner was Speaker and I was there for the Pelosi years, the

Paul Ryan years, and now this you know era of uncertainty where they had the war of the five

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