Rankings released by the National Taxpayers Union this week show why federal spending is still wildly out of control. Some House Republicans learned a lesson from their party’s 2006 drubbing at the polls, but their Senate counterparts have largely abandoned any real efforts to restore fiscal discipline.
As for Democrats who promised to “drain the swamp,” they’ve been too busy shoveling our money out the door while preparing the biggest tax increase in American history.
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The NTU rankings are based on every 2007 roll-call vote on federal spending and taxes. All told, there were 427 of these votes in the House and 182 in the Senate. Voting against more spending or higher taxes moves a lawmaker up in NTU’s ranking, while voting for has the opposite effect.
Each member of Congress thus has a long record that no amount of campaign rhetoric can erase. And with few exceptions, that record is either disappointing or downright dismal. The top scorer in the House for the fifth consecutive year was Arizona Republican Jeff Flake who opposed more spending and taxes 96 percent of the time, and Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., took top honors in the Senate with a 93 percent score.
Unfortunately, the voting records of the Washington-area’s senators and representatives show that most couldn’t care less about the growing burden of taxes on their constituents.
What they care about is using our taxdollars to advance their political interests.
In Virginia, retiring Rep. Thomas Davis III, R-11th, voted in the interests of taxpayers 57 percent of the time, while Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th, voted for lower taxes and spending only 44 percent of the time.
But Davis and Wolf were tight-fisted compared to Rep. James Moran, D-8th, who voted to lighten the load on taxpayers only 5 percent of the time.
Across the Potomac in Maryland, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-5th, led the race against taxpayers with a 3 percent rating, while Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-8th, and retiring Albert Wynn, D-4th, each voted for taxpayers only 5 percent of the time.
In the Senate, retiring Virginia Republican John Warner’s 55 percent score only looked good compared with Democratic Sen. Jim Webb’s 13 percent. Maryland’s Democratic Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin scored 7 and 6 percent, respectively.
Federal overspending will continue unchecked until taxpayers wake up and stop sending so many “Big Spenders” back to Congress.
