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Congressional Ratings: How Your Hard Earned Money Is Spent
Visit: National Taxpayers Union The Official Blog of National Taxpayers Union Posted by Keith Capp - April 17, 2008 If there is a Member of Congress who can brag about being a friend to taxpayers it is Representative Jeff Flake (AZ-6). Representative Flake received his 5th consecutive #1 Ranking in the US House! In fact, he has received 7 Taxpayers’ Friend Awards and never been ranked below the number 2 spot. Rep. Flake is truly a House MVP. Are We in Bizarro World? Andrew Roth The House is currently debating the Beach Act of 2007. The proposal would give formula-based grants to state and local governments to clean up polluted beaches. Rep. Jeff Flake just offered an amendment that "prohibits the use of funds authorized by this bill for Congressional earmarks." Guess what? It looks like it's going to pass. The vote tally is currently 262-118. I'll post the official tally once it's available. Are lawmakers so concerned about being labeled a porker that they are now voting for earmark reform proposals? UPDATE: It passed 263-117. Afterwards, Flake issued a press release. I liked the last sentence: "Congressman Flake plans to offer a similar amendment to every authorization bill considered by the House in the future." You can bet that these anti-pork amendments will be in the 2008 RePORK Card. NTU Rates Congress 2007 Posted by Kristina Rasmussen - April 08, 2008 Drum roll please … results from NTU Rates Congress 2007 are now available. Read the press release. Taxpayers’ Best Friends Congratulations to Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ) for coming in at #1 in the Senate and House, making them the 2007 Taxpayers’ Best Friends. Biggest Spenders Coming in last were Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Representative Alcee Hastings (D-FL). Senator Akaka voted with taxpayers only 3 percent of the time. Representative Hastings scored an all-time record low by voting for taxpayers only 1 percent of the time. Every single member of the Massachusetts delegation received an "F." Full article NTU National Taxpayers Union From: Citizens Against Government Waste Full article To Citizens Against Government Waste Excerpts: Right now, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) is seeking to be placed on the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Flake has been the House’s leading champion for smaller, less wasteful government and has helped spearhead the drive to restore fiscal discipline in Washington. Rep. Flake has an unblemished record on congressional earmarks, having never requested a single pork-barrel project, and has been a tireless advocate on behalf of all taxpayers. A coordinated attack on earmarks/pork is underway hoping to win the battle against deal-making for the purpose of winning votes and currying favor with supporters. Once limited to a few junior senators, earmark targeting is now being tackled in a serious manner, especially by Senate Republicans. Congressional Ratings These senators are teaming with leading critics of earmarking, such as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who, now have become active on six social networking sites, including an online petition and a newly formed caucus. These groups are urging anyone with a computer to play detective and call in tips on egregious-looking earmarks. Senator DeMint, has two to five members of his staff scrutinizing bills in order to locate sham earmarks, at all times. The senator described a team effort to deal with the problem. This destructive practice is deeply entrenched. Let's keep the pressure on. House GOP Help Dems Keep Pork Amanda Carpenter reports in Townhouse.com Excerpts: A majority of House Republicans crossed party lines to help Democrats override President Bush’s veto of a spending bill that was stuffed with millions worth of pork-barrel projects Tuesday. President Bush vetoed the $23 billion water resources bill because Congress put too many earmarks into it. During negotiations between the House and the Senate, the bill’s price tag increased dramatically. The House passed their version of the bill at a cost of $14 billion and the Senate passed theirs at a cost of $15 billion. When the final version of the bill was delivered to the President, after the two chambers conferred, the total cost was $23 billion because of pet projects added in at the last minute-- like a $63 million earmark for “beach nourishment” in Lido Key Beach in Sarasota, Florida. Several weeks ago, one poll gave congress the lowest rating since the beginning of poll taking on this issue. The approval rating was a miserable 13%. Yet in this session they voted to give themselves another raise. They already pay themselves about 4 times the average per capita income, have a pension at least twice as good as the average private sector pension and unspeakably good total perks for themselves. Following are the Highest Rated members of the United States House of Representatives as rated by the CLUB FOR GROWTH. The ratings were based on votes in 2006 The highest percentage ratings means the rep voted for legislation that promoted growth and was not pork or other waste of taxpayers hard earned dollars. Jeff Flake (R) Az 6th District 100% John Shaddeg (R) Az 3rd 100% Jeb Hensarling Tx 5th 100% Trent Franks (R) Az 2nd 98% Hostettler R Indiana 8th 97% Mike Pence Ind (R) 8th 97% Steve King (R) Ia 5th 94% Lynn Westmoreland GA (R) 8th 92%
The Congressional Ratings presented here will show how your Senators and U.S. House members, worry about spending your hard earned dollars. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) rates every Senator and every House member. The House vote is shown here, the Senate vote is shown on a separate page. Senate Vote The following data applies to the first session (first year of 2005-2006 session). Below are the House members with the BEST ratings for saving your tax dollars and the House members with the Worst ratings or the biggest spenders. The House voted on 34 bills. These bills were either a good use of your tax dollars (your daily labor) or conversely, had serious pork in them to favor certain interest groups maybe even welfare groups. If a House member voted favorably on all 34 votes, CAGW would give him a score of 100%. To arrive at each House member’s score, divide the total number of votes (34) into the number of favorable votes i.e., favorable to saving your tax dollars. In these Congressional Ratings, the three House members tied with perfect scores, John Campbell and Royce Edward of California and Rob Portman of Ohio with a score of 100%. Royce Edward voted the right way, 34 out of 34 times. Messers Portman and Campbell had scores of 100% but were not in the House for 100% of the session.
on the Internet-Learn More-Click Photo Congressional Ratings To U.S. House Scorecard: Citizens Against Government Waste
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