jeff flake

No surprise here. -Matt Moon

For the last 30 years, the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) has ranked Members of Congress on their fiscal discipline. NTU’s Ratings database covers thousands of votes and has become a historical benchmark of how taxpayer-friendly individual Members, the parties, and the chambers are. While many other organizations’ scorecards use a small number of selected votes, NTU’s scorecard utilizes every roll call vote that affects taxes, spending, and regulatory issues during a session of Congress. For the second session of the 110th Congress (2008), the Rating was based on 182 votes in the House and 104 in the Senate. Further, NTU’s Rating is nonpartisan and every Member of Congress is rated on the same scale.

In 2008, only nine Senators and 39 Representatives attained scores that were high enough on a significantly “curved” scale to earn them an “A” and a “Taxpayers’ Friend Award.” The minimum rating in the House to earn an “A” was 80 percent and in the Senate was 76 percent. For the sixth consecutive year, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) was ranked number one in the House with a 98 percent. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) earned the highest ranking in the Senate for the third consecutive year with a 96 percent. The highest-ranked Democrat in the House was Rep. Nick Lampson (TX) with a 44 percent score for a “C-,” while Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA) was the highest-rated Democrat in the Senate with a 26 percent score for a “D.”

Meanwhile, the 2008 Rating saw the highest-ever number of “Big Spenders,” with 267 lawmakers earning “F” grades for scoring 25 percent or below in the House and 15 percent or below in the Senate.

The averages were also very interesting and may shed some light on the direction of each party and Congressional chamber. In the House, the average score rose one point from the 2007 Rating to 36 percent, and in the Senate, the average score fell five points to 32 percent. For the parties, the average Democrats’ score in the House rose five points to 11 percent and in the Senate remained the same at 8 percent. The House Republicans’ average fell four points to 65 percent, while the Senate GOP score fell nine points to 57 percent.

To learn more about NTU’s Rating and to find how your Senators or Representative did, visit http://tinyurl.com/nturates08. Download NTU's 2008 Rating of Congress in PDF.