House Speaker Boehner: Don’t expect Congress to be popular anytime soon

TAMPA, Fla.—Most congressional approval polls rank the United States Congress as one of the most loathed institutions in the nation. That's a fact that may remain for some time, said House Speaker John Boehner on Monday.

"Congress has been America's favorite whipping boy for over 200 years, and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon," Boehner said during a Christian Science Monitor luncheon near the Republican National Convention. "On any given day, some of them may be out there doing things they probably shouldn't be doing. It's just a fact."

"But I'm going to say this," he added. "I know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and while there may be differences between Democrats and Republicans, I can tell you that, you know, 99 percent of my colleagues are decent, honest people trying to do the right thing for the American people. But we work in a setting that makes it very difficult for people to see that. People think that all we do is gripe at each other, and they don't realize that 80 percent of the time we're working in a bipartisan manner getting the people's work done."

Nearly 80 percent of Americans disapprove of the current Congress, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.