---

Congress  Make-Up  from Year 1855-to-Present

---

From 1989 to 2011 . . .

StartYear	EndYear	Congress	Re-Election	Party Seat	NOTES:
		#	Rate	Retention Rate
1989	1991	101	90.1%	99.6%
1991	1993	102	87.7%	98.3%
1993	1995	103	73.6%	98.1%
1995	1997	104	79.8%	88.2%
1997	1999	105	77.4%	98.7%
1999	2001	106	89.9%	99.3%
2001	2003	107	88.2%	98.7%
2003	2005	108	87.9%	98.1%	65 voted out
2005	2007	109	88.6%	98.7%	61 voted out
2007	2009	110	84.9%	93.1%	81 voted out: (68 (=16(D)+51(R)+1(I) in the House)) + (13 (=3(D)+9(R)+1(I) in the Senate))
2009	2011	111	86.9%	94.0%	70 voted out: (57 (=13(D)+44(R) in the House)) + (13 (=3(D)+10(R) in the Senate))
		AVERAGE=	85.0%	96.8%

Average Party Seat Retention rate between 2009 and 2011:   93.3%
Average Party Seat Retention rate between 2007 and 2009:   93.1%
Average Party Seat Retention rate between 2000 and 2006:   97.6%
Average Party Seat Retention rate between 1996 and 2006:   96.4%
Average Party Seat Retention rate between 1980 and 2006:   96.5%
Average Party Seat Retention rate between 1855 and 2006:   91.2%

Voters give Congress dismal 11% to 18% approval ratings, but then do a very strange thing:  Reward Congress with 85% (or higher) re-election rates.

During a portion of the Great Depression (38.8% (206 of 531) of the incumbents were ousted in year 1933) . . .

In year 1933, unhappy voters ousted 206 Congress persons (i.e 38.8%=206/531) from Congress (or 44.1% =206/[435 + (96/3)], since only one-third of the Senate is up for re-election every 6 years, considering there were only 96 Senators in year 1933, and the same number of Representatives as today (i.e. 435), for a total of 531 Congress persons in year 1933).

Eventually, enough voters will most likely do it again and vote out record numbers of incumbent politicians from do-nothing Congress again, when the consequences of repeatedly rewarding irresponsible incumbent politicians with perpetual re-election finally becomes too painful.  Already, these 17+ economic conditions are now worse then ever and/or since the 1930s and 1940s, due to the perpetuation of these 10+ abuses for the past 30+ years (abuses that did not all come about by mere coincidence).  Perhaps enough voters will finally question the wisdom and habit of repeatedly rewarding irresponsible incumbent politicians with perpetual re-election when enough voters are jobless, homeless, and hungry?   Pain and misery is often the final lesson and self-correction mechanism.  Pain and misery is one of the most effective types of motivation and education.