Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images There is no question that Americans are frustrated with their elected officials, but the latest Gallup poll shows that frustration has reached a fever pitch, plummeting Congress to its lowest approval rating in history. Just 10 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, fewer than at any previous point in Gallup's nearly 40 years of polling. With an approval rating that low, it is hard to find anything that is actually less popular than Congress. In the nearly half a century-long history of Gallup polling, the only people or institutions that have been more unpopular than the current Congress are Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Mark Fuhrman, a detective in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, said Gallup's Editor in Chief Frank Newport. Here's a look at some of the things Americans like more than Congress: 
 
 Derick E. Hingle/Bloomberg /Getty Images BP During the Oil Spill At the height of the BP oil spill in 2010, while thousands of barrels of crude oil were streaming into the Gulf of Mexico daily, the BP oil company, which owned the gushing offshore rig, had a higher approval rating than Congress currently has. A June 2010 Gallup poll shows that 16 percent of respondents approved of how BP was handling the spill, which went uncapped for two months. 
 
 Jacques DeMarthon/AFP/Getty Images Socialism It's a label than many of Obama's critics have attempted to plaster on the president's re-election campaign like the scarlet A on Hester Prynne's dress. But judging by the latest polls, socialism is actually more popular than Congress. Three times as many people have a positive view of socialism than have a positive view of Congress. According to a CBS/New York Times poll released last month, 33 percent of Americans view socialism positively. 
 
 John Moore/Getty Images Waterboarding More people think waterboarding, where interrogators pour water over a prisoner's face so they feel like they are drowning, should be used as an interrogation tactic against suspected terrorists than support Congress. According to a November CNN/ORC poll an even 50 percent of respondents said Waterboarding should be allowed. The same poll found that 31 percent of Americans do not think the practice is torture while 68 percent said it is torture. 
 
 Getty Images Abortion In a July ABC/Washington Post poll 19 percent of respondents supported abortion being legal "in all cases," nearly double the percentage of people who support the current Congress. A slightly smaller percentage were on the opposite end of the spectrum, with 15 percent of respondents saying abortion should be outlawed in every circumstances. 
 
 Pierre Manevy/Express/Getty Images President Nixon In the midst of one of the greatest scandals in presidential history, President Richard Nixon had a higher approval rating that Congress currently has. A 1974 Gallup poll shows that 24 percent of Americans supported the president at the height of the Watergate scandal. 
 
 Getty Images Santa Clause Non-Believers More people in the United States have never believed in Santa Clause than currently put their faith in Congress. An AP/Gfk poll in December showed that 16 percent of Americans did not believe in Old Saint Nick as a child. Put another way, roughly the same number of people believe or have believed in Santa as currently disapprove of Congress. Cue Congressional Scrooge/Grinch jokes… 
 
 Yiannis Liakos/AFP/Getty Images Prime Minister of Greece More than twice as many people approve of the job Greek leader George Papandreou did in 2011, the year his country plummeted into the worst debt crises in the Western world, than support the U.S. Congress. Even after Papandreou resigned amid Greece's debt catastrophe, 21 percent of respondents worldwide still supported him, according to a worldwide Gallup poll conducted throughout 2011. 
 
 Seth Wenig/AP Photo Occupy Wall Street The groups representing outraged citizens on both ends of the political spectrum – Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party – both have more support than the current Congress. An NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll in December showed 24 percent of respondents were supportive of the Occupy Wall Street movement and 27 percent said they considered themselves Tea Party supporters. 
 
 Jeff Bottari/Getty Images Paris Hilton Reality TV star and heiress Paris Hilton is the least popular celebrity, but she is still more popular than Congress. An August Ipsos poll on celebrity popularity found that 60 percent of respondents had an unfavorable view of Hilton, making her comparatively popular compared to the 86 percent of people who said they disapprove of Congress. Hilton and Charlie Sheen were the only two celebrities in the poll that were view more negatively than positively, falling below the likes of Brittany Spears and Kanye West, who both had a 45 percent favorability rate. ||||| Two months of oil continuing to gush from a well off the Gulf Coast, as well as an unemployment rate still near 10 percent, have taken a toll on President Barack Obama and his standing with the American public, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. 
 
 For the first time in the survey, more disapprove of his job performance than approve; for the first time in his presidency, more than 60 percent believe the country is on the wrong track; and as he relieves Gen. Stanley McChrystal of his command in Afghanistan, Obama’s scores on being able to handle a crisis and on being decisive have plummeted since last year. 
 
 This is a president who has been bruised and bloodied by the events of the past few months, although not yet knocked down, say the Democratic and Republican pollsters who conducted the survey. 
 
 “There is just no way that an American president is not going to see his job rating affected” after these events, observed GOP pollster Bill McInturff. “The little faint signs [of improvement] we were seeing in April and May have been squished by two months of this story in the Gulf.” 
 
 Added Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart: “These numbers aren’t good. But they are far from awful.” 
 
 Obama’s declining numbers 
 
 In the poll, Obama’s job-approval rating stands at 45 percent, which is down five points from early last month and down three points from late May. 
 
 Forty-eight percent in the current survey say they disapprove of his job performance. 
 
 What’s more, Obama’s favorable/unfavorable rating is now at 47 percent to 40 percent, down from 49 percent to 38 percent in early May and 52 percent to 35 percent in January. 
 
 His scores on other ascpects of the presidency also have declined. In April 2009, 54 percent gave the president high marks for being able to handle a crisis; now it’s 40 percent. 
 
 In July 2009, 57 percent gave him high marks for being decisive and for his decision-making; now it’s 44 percent. 
 
 And also in July 2009, 61 percent gave him high marks for having strong leadership qualities; now it’s 49 percent. 
 
 A silver lining for Obama is that his personal scores are still strong: 64 percent give him high marks for being easygoing and likeable, and 51 percent give him high marks for being compassionate enough to understand average people. 
 
 Yet those percentages, too, are down from last year. 
 
 “On the personal level,” says Hart, the Democratic pollster, “the public still stays with him.” 
 
 Gulf spill takes it toll on Obama — and especially BP 
 
 There is no doubt that the two-month Gulf spill has played a significant role in the president’s declining poll numbers. 
 
 In the survey — which was conducted after Obama’s fourth visit to the Gulf last week, after his Oval Office address on the spill, and after getting BP to agree to a $20 billion escrow account to help pay for relief — 50 percent say they disapprove of Obama’s handling of the spill, while 42 percent approve. 
 
 But the public gives him better ratings than it does Congress, the federal government, and BP. 
 
 A combined 48 percent believe that Obama has done more or as much as expected in dealing with spill. By comparison, 39 percent say the same of Congress, 36 percent say that of the federal government (including the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency), and just 27 percent say that of BP. 
 
 Video: Did BP understate size of spill? Indeed, the poll shows that only 6 percent have a favorable rating of BP. In the history of the NBC News/Journal poll, Saddam Hussein (3 percent), Fidel Castro (3 percent) and Yasser Arafat (4 percent) have had lower favorable scores, and O.J. Simpson (11 percent) and tobacco-maker Philip Morris (15 percent) have had higher ratings. 
 
 The spill also has slightly changed attitudes about offshore drilling. In May, 60 percent said they supported the proposal allowing for more offshore drilling off the U.S. coast. That percentage now has dropped to 53 percent, although it’s still a majority. 
 
 The economy and the economic blame game 
 
 The other dominant story in the poll is the public’s sour mood about the economy and about the nation’s direction. 
 
 After last month’s disappointing jobs report (in which the economy added just 41,000 private-sector jobs), only 33 percent believe the U.S. economy will get better in the next 12 months. That is a seven-point drop since May. 
 
 In addition, 62 percent say the country is headed in the wrong direction, which is its highest point in Obama’s presidency. 
 
 Yet the public continues to blame George W. Bush more for the state of the economy than it does Obama. 
 
 According to the poll, a combined 40 percent say that Bush and his administration’s policies are “solely” or “mainly” responsible for the current economic conditions, while just 27 percent say the same of Obama and his policies. ||||| Approval for Congress and the GOP hit all-time lows this week as the government shut down after lawmakers could not agree on a budget. 
 
 A mere 10% of Americans–the smallest approval rating for Congress in history–said they approve of Congress’ accomplishments, according to a new CNN/ORC International poll released Monday. Disapproval of federal lawmakers reached 87%. 
 
 Just 17% of the country–the lowest approval rating in Quinnipiac University’s polling–approved of the way GOP lawmakers are dealing with current issues, and 74% disapproved, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday. That has ticked down two points from the August Quinnipiac results. 
 
 Democrats didn’t avoid disappointment from people, either, but their approval rating stood at 32%, up one point from the August poll. 
 
 The government closed after midnight for the first time in 17 years after Congress failed to pass a bill Monday that would have provided a federal budget. The public could begin signing up Tuesday for Obamacare, which was at the heart of the debate that led to the shutdown. 
 
 Almost half–47%–of Americans were more likely to say the debate about the budget is based from both parties on gaining political advantage rather than on following principle and the future of the government. according to a new Gallup poll. When the government last closed in Nov. 1995, a similar 52% said the debate was political. 
 
 Earlier this year in June Americans ranked 16 other institutions–including banks, television news, police, and churches–higher than their level of confidence in Congress, which also dropped to 10% then. The rating was the lowest level not only for Congress, but for any institution on record–-ever. 
 
 The country is almost split down the middle in its regard for President Obama’s handling of his job: 51% agreed that he has the leadership and personality expected of a president, whereas 48% disagreed with the statement. His approval ratings were the highest in April 2009 with 75% of Americans having confidence in his role.
– A Gallup poll released Wednesday finds that Americans' approval of Congress has hit yet another record low: 10%. There aren't many institutions Americans have liked less over the last 50-or-so years, according to Gallup: Only Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and OJ Simpson detective Mark Fuhrman have ever scored lower. ABC News takes a look at some very unpopular things that still manage to rank above Congress: According to an August poll, Paris Hilton is America's least-favorite celeb. But her 60% disapproval rating is still better than Congress's 86% disapproval rating. Socialism is about three times as popular as Congress: About 33% of Americans view the system positively, according to a January poll. About half of Americans polled in November said waterboarding should be permitted as an interrogation technique—meaning more support the technique than support Congress. During the financial crisis, banks were more popular than Congress is now: Some 18% of Americans still had faith in the institutions in 2009. In June 2010, as thousands of barrels of oil were pouring into the Gulf of Mexico every day, 16% of Americans approved of BP's work on the crisis. Click through to see what else Americans hate less than they despise Congress.