Dems live up to ‘tax and spend’, get dismal scores from CAGW

[Commentary] Watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste has released The 2008 Congressional Ratings issue, and objective results show Democrats indeed own the label ‘Tax and Spend.’ Since 1989 CAGW and The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste rate members of Congress by examining their roll call votes. CAGW said, “Those who protect tax dollars and cut spending deserve recognition.” The 2008 report is based on 42 votes in the House of Representatives and 42 votes in the Senate. The closer a congressional member’s score is to 100, the bigger tax hero that member is. The US Report anticipated low scores for Democrats this year, but the actual scores are as low as Democrats’ opinions of the tea party protesters angry at fiscal irresponsibility. Even the Blue Dogs, an attempt via an illusory brand to associate conservatism with a leftwing party, are no friends to taxpayers. The Blue Dogs are a myth.

Highlights of the CAGW ratings—Republicans actually raised the overall scores for both chambers:
•Total House [under Democrat rule]: 35 percent
•Democrats: 6 percent; Blue Dogs: 10 percent
•Republicans: 70 percent; Republican Study Committee: 79 percent

One taxpayer “super hero” emerged: Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) with an amazing 100 percent. Others coming close to that status in the Senate were Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) with scores of 98 percent. Numerous other Republicans had solid scores, but the highest Dem score in the House was 39 percent. In the Senate the highest Dem score was 35 percent.

This will surprise no one, but the fiscal year 2010 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act increases spending by 5.8 percent. For that you can thank the leftwing big spenders.

Of interest to some will be scores by high profile members who have been in Congress so long they drag root tendrils behind them as they scrape along the corridors in the Capitol. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), beleaguered Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and many other Democrats had a score of zero. In the Senate, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had scores of zero. Remember these names. They are handing record indebtedness to baby boomers who will soon flood retiree rolls and to all our children and grandchildren. Numerous other Dems had scores of zero. This Party’s leadership is eroding our future and it doesn’t matter whether we are poor, middling or rich.

As President Barack Obama and the ruling party in Congress place emphasis on national security, with a focus on energy, and as they collaborate on a healthcare bill that is at present a truly unknown quantity despite media hype to the contrary (we do not have actual legislative language yet; who knows the true cost or implications of the actual bill once it passes?), they have adopted an aggressive policy of income redistribution that will increase the tax burden for those who actually pay taxes as opposed to those who are recipients of tax revenue. History should record the current leaders in Washington as among the most negligent in the chronicles of the US government.  This leadership is single-handedly wrecking what is left of the ‘American Dream.

Next time you witness a Democrat claiming integrity and promising you change for the better, take the statements for what they are: a complete falsehood. Democrats own the label ‘tax and spend,’ and the proof is in objective data at the CAGW website. They have, in essence, embargoed America’s future.

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