After wasting a week on an epic speaker's fight, House Republicans are getting to work for the American people. Well, kind of. Or actually, really not at all.
While 58% of voters would like House Republicans to prioritize lowering costs like groceries and gas, the GOP caucus is instead plowing ahead on the lowest priority among the six tested by Navigator Research poll: investigations.
Given a list that included lowering costs, improving health care, cracking down on illegal immigration, dealing with the national debt, protecting American security from foreign threats (e.g. Russia, China), and investigating Biden, just 14% of registered voters chose investigating Biden.
Looking over this Navigator survey, it's striking just how incredibly unpopular the House GOP agenda is after two years of poll after poll reaffirming how wildly popular President Biden's agenda was.
And voters get how out of whack Republicans' ambitions are. Given a longer list of 16 priorities, voters perceive the House GOP to be entirely too focused on investigating Biden, abortion, and immigration while not being nearly enough focused on inflation, health care and climate change.
After the speaker's fight, some messages work particularly well at reflecting bipartisan disgust with House Republicans. GOP efforts to consolidate power and party infighting at the expense of the American people resonates more than generalized arguments about chaos and incompetence.
Specifically, 71% agree Republicans are focused on "getting and strengthening their power," including 78% of Democrats, 63% of independents, and 66% of Republicans.
Also, 70% agree that Republicans are "fighting amongst themselves and neglecting the American people, including 87% of Democrats, 64% of independents, and 52% of Republicans.
Finally, Speaker Kevin McCarthy's favorability ratings have already begun eroding since last year, with just 25% of voters viewing him favorably while 44% view him unfavorably. That puts McCarthy 19 points underwater—6 points worse than his net favorability of -13 back in November.
Needless to say, this is no way to kick off the GOP’s first shot at House governance since 2019, after voters gave them a whopper of a boot in the '18 midterms.
It's bound to get worse from here for the House Republicans, given their overall level of incompetence and stunning disconnect from the priorities of real people.