Group Lists 'Taxpayers' Friends' in Congress

The National Taxpayers Union has released its 32nd annual Rating of Congress, which grades lawmakers on every roll call vote affecting fiscal policy to determine which members of Congress are "Taxpayers' Friends" and which ones are "Big Spenders."

The 2010 rankings are based on 165 House and 142 Senate votes, according to the 362,000-member NTU, a nonpartisan, nonprofit citizens group that promotes lower taxes and smaller government.

From a press releases issued by NTU:

Between 2009 and 2010, the average "Taxpayer Score" in the House rose from 38 percent to 42 percent. The Senate's average increased from 39 percent to 45 percent. The Senate had an all-time low of 28 percent in 1988 (the House hit bottom that same year, at 27 percent). The highest marks were reached in 1995, when House and Senate averages were 58 percent and 57 percent, respectively.

In 2010, 79 lawmakers attained scores sufficient for an "A" grade and hence were eligible for the "Taxpayers' Friend Award" – an increase from the 55 who earned top grades in 2009. Meanwhile, 264 Senators and Representatives captured the title of "Big Spender" for posting "F" grades – just three shy of the 2009 record.

Rep. Jeff Flake continued his record streak as "Taxpayers' Best Friend" in the House (scoring 97 percent), holding on to that distinction for an eighth consecutive year. Not to be out-done, Sens. John McCain and Sam Brownback posted the highest score NTU has ever recorded coming in at 99.5 percent.

On the other end of the scale, five lawmakers had scores that rounded to a rock-bottom 2 percent: Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), and Gary Ackerman (D-NY) in the House; and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Carl Levin (D-MI) in the Senate.

The 2010 Rating and a searchable Rating database dating back to 1992 is available at www.ntu.org