Public losing confidence in all branches

Confidence in all three branches of the United States’ government has fallen to record lows, according to a survey released Monday by Gallup.

Thirty percent of the public is confident in the Supreme Court, 7 percent is confident in Congress, and 29 percent is confident in the presidency. 

The confidence rating for the presidency is at a six-year low and down 7 percentage points since last June. 

{mosads}Gallup notes that the public has always had less confidence in Congress than in the other branches of government.

The polling organization began tracking confidence in the presidency in March 1991, when President George H. W. Bush was in office. At that time, 72 percent of the public was confident in the presidency, the highest confidence rating it has received.

Bush, however, also received the largest drop in confidence when it fell to 50 percent later that year.

President Obama received the greatest first-year confidence rating of 51 percent in 2009. His predecessor, President George W. Bush, received the highest first-term confidence ratings until his second term, when it fell to an all-time low of 25 percent in 2007.

Under President Bill Clinton in June 1998, more than half of the public was confident in the presidency.

The poll surveyed 1,027 people between June 5 and 8 with a 4-point margin of error.