Fact check: Fact-checking Ben Sasse's floor speech in the Senate on November 3, 2015
November 6, 2015
By Charles Aull
Senator Ben Sasse (R) delivered a speech on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday in which he called for changes to the chamber's culture and the use of more "facts and data" in congressional debates.
We decided to look into a couple of Sasse's own facts in his speech, including one about Americans' opinions on the country's current direction and another about Congress' job approval rating.
Our research shows Sasse to have been correct on both accounts, though we raise one minor issue with his claim about Americans' opinions on the country's direction.
Background
Ben Sasse is a first-term Republican senator from Nebraska who was elected to succeed Republican Mike Johanns on November 4, 2014. Before coming to the Senate, Sasse was the president of Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska, and a business consultant.
His speech earlier this week marked his first floor speech in the Senate, and he used the opportunity to advocate for changes to the chamber's culture, at one point saying:
| “ | We sometimes conceive of our role today here as merely policy advocates—as those who argue for our respective party's position on short-term policy fights, and this is sometimes important, but that is only one of our roles ... we also need to contextualize our debates about our largest national challenges with facts and data.[1] | ” |
Before making this point, Sasse brought out some facts of his own in order to illustrate for his colleagues what he sees as some of the problems that the Senate is facing. He said:
| “ | Surveys reveal that the public is actually much more dissatisfied with us then they're even scared about the intractability of the big problems that we face. Consider the contrast: somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of the country think the nation is on a bad track, that the experiences of their kid and grandkids will be less than the experiences of their parents and grandparents. That's bad. But consider this: only one in ten of them is comforted that we're here doing these jobs.[1] | ” |
We wondered if his assessment of U.S. public opinion was accurate. Do between two-thirds and three-quarters of the country think the nation is on a "bad track," and is only one in ten Americans "comforted" by the job Congress is doing?
"Bad track"
We start with Sasse's comments that between two-thirds and three-quarters of the country think the nation is on a "bad track."
We reached out to Sasse's office for clarification and to find out what survey data he used in this speech. His press secretary, James Wegmann, provided us with information on the other claim under examination in this article, but not this one. If we learn more, we will update this article accordingly.
In the meantime, we looked to Real Clear Politics, a nonpartisan political website that also houses a database of polling and survey results. In total, we found 15 different public surveys conducted within the last month featuring variations of the question "do you think the country is heading in the right direction or is on the wrong track," which we argue is a reasonable approximation of Sasse's "bad track."
On average, 63.8 percent of the respondents in these surveys said the country is heading in the wrong direction or is on the wrong track. This is just slightly less than the two-thirds that Sasse cited. With that being said, three of the surveys did record numbers at two-thirds or slightly above. The highest were two Rasmussen surveys at 69 percent each. The lowest was a Reuters/Ipsos survey at 57 percent. The table below gives the results of all 15 surveys.
| October 2015 Survey Results: "Do you think the country is heading in the right direction or is on the wrong track?" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Survey | Date | Right Direction (%) | Wrong Track (%) | Sample Size |
| NBC/WSJ | 10/25-29 | 27 | 64 | 1000 |
| Rasmussen Reports | 10/25-29 | 27 | 65 | 2500 |
| Reuters/Ipsos | 10/24-28 | 24 | 59 | 1678 |
| The Economist/YouGov | 10/23-27 | 26 | 66 | 1234 |
| CBS/NY Times | 10/21-25 | 27 | 65 | 1289 |
| Rasmussen Reports | 10/18-23 | 27 | 64 | 2500 |
| Reuters/Ipsos | 10/17-21 | 23 | 61 | 2214 |
| Associated Press-GFK | 10/15-19 | 36 | 63 | 1027 |
| NBC/WSJ | 10/15-18 | 25 | 64 | 1000 |
| Rasmussen Reports | 10/11-15 | 24 | 69 | 2500 |
| Reuters/Ipsos | 10/10-14 | 26 | 57 | 1348 |
| The Economist/YouGov | 10/8-12 | 27 | 65 | 1279 |
| Rasmussen Reports | 10/4-9 | 24 | 69 | 2500 |
| CBS News | 10/4-8 | 30 | 63 | 1251 |
| Reuters/Ipsos | 10/3-7 | 22 | 63 | 1630 |
| Sources: Real Clear Politics, "Direction of Country," accessed November 5, 2015 | ||||
Overall, we argue that Sasse's point is correct, since there is recent data showing that "somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of the country think the nation is on a bad track." We found three surveys that support this claim. But the analysis above gives us another way to think about Sasse's statement. While three recent polls showed between two-thirds and three-quarters of Americans holding this opinion on the country's direction, 12 other surveys placed that number at less than two-thirds, and an average of 15 surveys conducted in October placed it at 63.8 percent. One could therefore argue that Sasse slightly overstated the number of Americans who think the country is heading in the wrong direction when he said "somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters."
Congressional approval ratings
For Sasse's claim that "only one in ten of them is comforted that we're here doing these jobs," we were unable to find surveys that matched his exact phrasing. James Wegmann —Sasse's press secretary—informed us that this was in reference to Congressional approval ratings, and Sasse, in fact, used this exact language later in his speech, saying, "Do we think the Founders would have regarded a 9 percent Congressional approval rating – a stunning level of distrust in representative government – as an existential crisis?" Wegmann told us that Sasse's "only one in ten of them" comment was another way of making this same point.
We returned to Real Clear Politics' database and found eight surveys from last month that asked participants whether they approved or disapproved of the job Congress is doing. On average, 12.25 percent of respondents said they approved. The highest approval rating was from an Associated Press survey conducted in mid-October that showed 16 percent. The lowest was 9 percent, an Economist/YouGov survey from early October.
| October 2015 Survey Results: "Do you approve or disapprove of the job Congress is doing?" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Survey | Date | Approve (%) | Disapprove (%) | Sample Size |
| The Economist/YouGov | 10/23-27 | 11 | 68 | 1234 |
| CBS/NY Times | 10/21-25 | 13 | 75 | 1289 |
| Associated Press-GfK | 10/15-19 | 16 | 83 | 1027 |
| FOX News | 10/10-12 | 13 | 78 | 1004 |
| Gallup | 10/7-11 | 13 | 82 | 1015 |
| The Economist/YouGov | 10/8-12 | 9 | 69 | 1279 |
| CBS News | 10/4-8 | 12 | 79 | 1251 |
| PPP (D) | 10/1-4 | 11 | 82 | 1338 |
| Sources: Real Clear Politics, "Congressional Job Approval," accessed November 5, 2015 | ||||
On this point, we again argue that Sasse's claim was accurate. One survey actually showed that less than "one in ten" Americans approved of the job Congress is doing, and an average of eight polls conducted last month showed 12.25 percent of Americans sharing this same opinion. If rounded down, this equates to "one in ten."
Conclusion
In a floor speech on November 3, first-term Senator Ben Sasse stated, "somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of the country think the nation is on a bad track" and "only one in ten of them is comforted that we're here doing these jobs."
We argue that his claim about Americans' opinions on the direction of the country was accurate, but one could call it a slight overstatement. Three surveys showed that "somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of the country think the nation is on a bad track," but we found 12 other surveys suggesting that the number is less than that and an average of 15 surveys showed that 63.8 percent of Americans hold this opinion. Sasse's statement about Congress' approval rating was also true. One survey showed that less than one in ten Americans have a favorable view of Congress, while an average of eight polls put that number at 12.25 percent.
Launched in October 2015 and active through October 2018, Fact Check by Ballotpedia examined claims made by elected officials, political appointees, and political candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. We evaluated claims made by politicians of all backgrounds and affiliations, subjecting them to the same objective and neutral examination process. As of 2025, Ballotpedia staff periodically review these articles to revaluate and reaffirm our conclusions. Please email us with questions, comments, or concerns about these articles. To learn more about fact-checking, click here.
Sources
C-SPAN, "Senator Ben Sasse Maiden Senate Floor Speech," November 3, 2015
Congressional Record, "Senate," November 3, 2015
Real Clear Politics, "Congressional Job Approval," accessed November 5, 2015
Email exchange with James Wegmann on November 4, 2015
Real Clear Politics, "Direction of Country," accessed November 5, 2015
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