Pew: IRS least popular among federal agencies

By contrast, three separate agencies – the Centers for Disease Control, NASA and the Pentagon – have at least a 70 percent approval rating.

As Pew points out, those figures come as voters overall trust in government is eroding, on the heels of this month’s fiscal stalemate.

The IRS has come under fire for its treatment of conservative groups, and Republicans are trying to link that controversy to the agency’s oversight of President Obama’s healthcare law.

But as Pew noted earlier this year, the IRS wasn’t particularly popular even before the targeting issues. A 2010 Pew poll found that 47 percent had a favorable view of the agency, higher than only the Education Department.