ntu

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.

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! 

Despite our political differences, I’d like to give John McCain some credit where credit is due.  

“And now I suggest that maybe you go to some of these organizations that are the watchdogs of what we do, like the Citizens Against Government Waste or the National Taxpayers Union or these other organizations that watch us all the time,” McCain said during last Tuesday’s presidential debate.

I couldn’t agree more. As McCain requested, please do go check out the data provided by the National Taxpayers Union which show exactly how much money McCain’s policy proposals will increase yearly federal spending. Their data clearly shows that former Congressman Bob Barr’s policy proposals will decrease spending by $201 billion each year, while Senator McCain’s will expand the cost of government by $92 billion.

Keep in mind that the NTU data were released on September 25, 2008 and Senator McCain has been very busy spending even more of your hard-earned tax dollars since then. 

“In yesterday’s debate, Sen. John McCain, who likes to pose as the taxpayer’s friend, came up with yet another bailout idea,” Bob Barr noted on October 8th.  “He wants the government to use $300 billion—which it doesn’t have—to buy up bad mortgages in order to prop up housing prices.  Yet, it was the artificial inflation of housing prices that got us into this mess in the first place.” 

“Moreover, Congress already has approved a $300 billion housing bailout measure supported by Sen. McCain,” Barr continued. “On top of that, Congress agreed to another $200 billion or more to bail-out the housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Then there is the recent $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, which Sen. McCain voted for."

Of course, Barr has been adamantly opposed to each of these bailout schemes, calling them bailouts from Hell on Neil Cavuto.

Senator McCain also talks a big game about cutting earmarks, despite the fact that he just voted for another $103 billion in “bold-faced earmarks.” And earmarks are merely the tip of the spending iceberg. Of late, the national symbol for earmark spending has been the Sarah Palin-supported “Bridge to Nowhere.” The difference between McCain’s and Barr’s spending proposals would finance 736 Bridges to Nowhere – or fifteen Bridges to Nowhere per state per year.

One doesn’t have to search very far on the Internet to find McCain supporters begging Americans to vote for John McCain because at least he isn’t a socialist like Barack Obama. A quick glance at the chart above (full detail provided in .gif and .pdf format) shows that one can either be on the small-government side or the big-government side of fiscal policy. The side which John McCain picked is readily apparent.

Hopefully, voters concerned with fiscal responsibility will change their minds and support Barr after seeing these data. The only remaining claim for McCain defenders is that “John McCain may be a socialist, but at least he’s our socialist.”

Stephen Gordon serves as the eCampaign Manager for the Barr 2008 Presidential Campaign.