National Taxpayers Union's blog

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.

This is another creative way to use technology to enhance grassroots operations, making activism into "insta-activism." A message to campaign managers for the 2010 cycle: build your own tools to organize voter indetification, voter communication/persuasion, and GOTV efforts. -Matt Moon

Last week, the 362,000-member National Taxpayers Union announced its use of an integral technology -- text messaging -- to activate concerned citizens nationwide on important matters of fiscal policy at the federal and state levels. Taxpayers can opt in to NTU's free service* by texting "FIGHT" to 54608.

It's no secret that the right is two steps behind the left when it comes to technological innovation. The most notable early-adopter of texting outreach was the Obama presidential campaign, which used it with great success to draw crowds, spread messages, generate new activists, and involve them in events. And although texting has been popularized elsewhere (i.e. the entertainment industry -- not that anyone at NTU watches or votes for contestants on American Idol), NTU is the first grassroots taxpayer advocacy group to use it on a national level. We see texting as a vital membership and community development tool to create a two-way dialogue with the nation's most important constituency: taxpayers.

Some numbers that most TNR readers are familiar with:

• The typical American averages 357 text messages per month, but only makes 204 phone calls.
• About 2.5 TRILLION text messages were sent last year alone, and that number is expected to grow to at least 3.3 TRILLION this year.

NTU has maintained a long and growing list of activists willing to e-mail their government representatives on specific issues -- something it will continue to do -- but employing mobile messaging technology puts NTU ahead of the curve when it comes to grassroots activism. Congressional offices inundated with e-mails can easily ignore those messages by hitting "delete," but nothing sends a more powerful message -- one that cannot be ignored -- than thousands upon thousands of phone calls that could shut down the Capitol switchboard, as was the case during recent bailout and stimulus votes. The same is true for State Legislatures across the country: A voice on the phone has infinitely more influence and immediacy than an e-mail.

We alert. You call. They listen. Text FIGHT to 54608 now!

*Other than the cost of one's text messaging plan. Subscribers will receive an automated confirmation message with more information and opt-out instructions.

Since its beginnings in Spring 2007, the Show Me the Spending Coalition, a growing group of over 30 organizations, has stood firmly committed to transparency in government spending. Today, the National Taxpayers Union announced that the Coalition has partnered with one of its members, the Sam Adams Alliance (www.samadamsalliance.org), to create a collaborative transparency portal.  Thanks to Wikipedia-like software, now everyone from Coalition members and staff to citizen activists will be able to share transparency news with others, and to update their states' transparency pages.

Promoted by Matt Moon - When it comes to using conservative principles to propose new, creative solutions to the challenges of our time, this is exactly what I'm talking about.

The bailout happened. What now?

There’s a lot of finger-pointing around Washington about who’s to blame – for both the conditions that necessitated a rescue package and for allowing one of the largest-ever government intrusions into the private sector to become law.

Today, the National Taxpayers Union and the Competitive Enterprise Institute launched BeyondBailouts.org to answer three main questions: How did this happen? What do we do now? How can I get involved? BeyondBailouts.org seeks to move past the blame game by learning from what went wrong, enacting policies to address those mistakes, and enabling taxpayers to get involved and take control of their hard-earned dollars. Among the reform recommendations:

• Privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac;
• Prosecute Corrupt Officials;
• Suspend Destructive Accounting Rules;
• Repeal the Community Investment Act; and
• Clean Up the Tax Code

As part of the site, NTU and CEI have launched a new “No More Bailouts” petition to provide taxpayers the ability to contact their representatives in Congress and the President with their thoughts on bailout-mania. Visit BeyondBailouts.org and get involved today! 

[Promoted - Jon Henke]

Fiscal conservatives have reason to be alarmed leading up to November. The current political climate is such that populist Democrats are poised to make significant gains on Capitol Hill, while Republicans are frantically moving to the center in order to stay in office. This likely means an increase in your tax burden, and a perpetually expanding federal budget (which has nearly doubled since 1980).

It goes without saying that those in favor of pro-growth public policy, with low taxes and sensible government spending, will be furious if a merry band of tax hikers is sworn in to Congress and state legislatures nationwide next year. What is less certain is whether these candidates are aware of America’s preference for policymakers keen on allowing citizens to spend their own money, rather than insisting the government spend it for them.

To that end, the National Taxpayers Union has launched its “I Don’t Vote for Tax Hikers” campaign to mobilize the grassroots movement and present a formal rejection of the tax-and-spend policies that threaten to further inundate government at all levels. The logic behind it is quite simple: Politicians respond to the demands of voters. This campaign is an incredibly important way to remind elected officials that there is a coordinated taxpayer lobby – and we vote, too.