From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Why don't Americans like their Congress?

Hello again, I'm Armin Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International,

the daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

As the lame duck Congress limps toward a close, public approval is at an all-time low 13% in the Gallup

poll comparable to used car salesmen. The House and the Senate have been much in the news.

Health care, the stimulus, the bank, and automobile bailouts, the Dream Act, Don't Ask, Don't

Tell. And media coverage has shown a bright light on the sausage making process by reporting on earmarks, filibusters, and partisan gridlock.

Has familiarity bred public contempt?

Is it the state of the economy?

Or does mistrust of government go all the way back to the founding fathers?

On reporters' notebook later on, implementing repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

First here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica

and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation,

the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur

Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, dedicated to the idea that all people

deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. Information at Gates Foundation.org.

Hello again, Mormon Alney, back with To the Poet. The Lame Duck Session of Congress has gotten

some things done, but it's not likely to go out of business with a burst of bipartisanship.

We'll review what's happened and what to expect and ask why just 13% of Americans like what they see.

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