Rating Congress on Taxpayer Friendliness

The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) has released its 2004 results, which rates House Members and Senators on taxpayer friendliness - support for reducing spending and regulation and opposing higher taxes. Every member of Congress is given a score of between 0 and 100, with 100 being the most taxpayer friendly and 0 being the least friendly. The NTU then translated the scores to school grades from A to F.

It should come as no surprise that Republicans scored much higher than Democrats, with an average rating of 62 in the House and 71 in the Senate vs. a Democratic average of 13 in the House and 17 in the Senate. You can view the House members and the Senator members who received the highest scores. Just remember this when you see "polls" that say Americans believe Democrats are better on spending and "fiscal responsibility." I don't know to whom people think Democrats are responsible, but it certainly ain't the taxpayers...

Congratulations to Massachussetts - the only state in the country in which every single member of Congress received a grade of 'F' - with several having a score in the single digits (except John Kerry, who received an incomplete because he failed to show up for enough votes).