NTU scores/grades on congressional spending

The National Taxpayers Union has just released their annual report on Congressional spending.

Of greatest local interest to me, Rep. Baron Hill received his fifth F for his seven years in Congress. (The other two years, he received a D.) His score of 14% puts him in the NTU’s category “Big Spender”-- and provides one more data point (if you need it) that Hill is simply a poser on the topic of fiscal conservatism.

Mike Pence again topped the Indiana delegation with an A. Dan Burton earned an A this year as well, while Steve Buyer earned a B+ and Mark Souder earned a B-. All of the Democrats earned F's.

In Kentucky, Davis had B+; Lewis had a B; Rogers had a B-; Whitfield had a C; Yarmuth and Chandler earned F's.

In his two years in Congress, Mike Sodrel earned a B and then a C+.

Of course, we know what Libertarians would earn-- and I'm glad to report that voters have that option, at least in the 9th District.

On the Senate side of local interest: Bunning earned an A; McConnell got a B+; and Richard Lugar earned a C. Evan Bayh's rating was still quite modest (D), but he moved back to the middle of the pack-- after two years in the fiscally liberal wilderness.

Overall, from the NTU press release:

The Rating provided clues to how Republicans, now in the minority, responded to their 2006 drubbing at the polls.

House GOP Members seemed to have taken the election results as a referendum on their declining fiscal discipline, as the average pro-taxpayer score rose nine points to 69 percent.

Senate Republicans, however, didn't seem to get the same memo. Their average fell nine points to 66 percent in 2007.

Democrats in both chambers saw drops in average scores: 16 percent to 6 percent in the House and 15 percent to 8 percent in the Senate.