A new poll shows that 22 percent of Americans categorize Congress as “somewhat productive.” That’s opposed to the 74 percent who categorize the Legislature as “somewhat unproductive.”

Those numbers make it clear that Congress is not only viewed as petty or untrustworthy, as politicians tend to be even when their approval ratings are high. Congress is also considered completely incompetent and ineffective. It’s not only that they do their job poorly, it’s that they don’t seem to be doing it at all.

I haven’t heard a single discussion about the current Congress that doesn’t focus on its uncanny ability to fail to get things done. The inefficacy of Congress seems to be just about the only thing Americans can agree on. Well, that and Gwyneth Paltrow. Pretty much everyone hates that poor woman.

So that begs the question – who the hell are the 22 percent of people who think that Congress is “somewhat productive”? As far as political approval ratings go, 22 percent is a very low number. An elected official with an approval rating below 40 percent would be wise to start looking for a private sector job. But still, more than one in five American adults think that our current Congress, which many have argued is the least effective in U.S. history, is “somewhat productive.” That’s a little bit baffling. I have a few theories to explain the seemingly unexplainable 22 percent.

It’s more than likely that this simply reveals a flaw in poll-taking in general. Some people don’t know how to answer a question so they pick a seemingly reasonable response out of thin air. After all, “somewhat productive” is a fairly wishy-washy response, and people with strong political convictions are rarely wishy-washy. I mean, would Donald Trump ever say that Obama is “somewhat Kenyan”?

Or maybe one-fifth of the people polled were thinking that Congress should be given credit for media appearances and fundraising efforts. After all, most of our congressmen are pretty good at that stuff. If that’s what happened then the 22 percent is downright generous in their assessment of our politicians.

Finally, it might be that one-fifth of the persons polled are actually part of the Chinese government. With all of the debt that we’ve racked up in recent years, this Congressional session actually has been quite productive for those guys.

So there are a few guesses as to what the 22 percent might be thinking. It can’t just be that a fifth of Americans actually consider Congress to be somewhat productive, can it? Whatever it is, forget about the 1 percent. It’s the 22 percent we have to worry about.