The current (July 20) issue of The New American includes our first congressional scorecard on the 111th Congress, which convened in January. The scorecard, entitled “The Freedom Index,” rates congressmen based on their adherence to constitutional principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, national sovereignty, and a traditional foreign policy of avoiding foreign entanglements.

Our newly published “Freedom Index” shows how every member of the House and Senate voted on key issues, such as the TARP funding to bail out financial institutions, SCHIP (children’s health insurance), the federal budget, and the economic stimulus package.

The average House score for this index is a dismal 38 percent and the average Senate score is an even worse 34 percent. Three representatives earned perfect scores: John Duncan (R-Tenn.), Jeff Flake (R.-Ariz.), and Ron Paul (R.-Texas). In the Senate, Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) scored 100 percent. The overall results should be much higher, of course, considering that our standard for rating lawmakers is the U.S. Constitution and every member of Congress takes an oath to uphold the Constitution.

Please examine how your own U.S. representative and senators voted on each key issue in the current “Freedom Index” as well as overall. To download a free copy of the “Freedom Index” from the July 20 issue of TNA, click here. We also encourage readers to commend legislators for their constitutional votes and to urge improvement where needed.

To email your U.S. representative and senators on selected issues, click here.
 

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Charles Byrd said:

My senators and Congressman Congressman Dennis Cardoza CA 18. Score: 20. This guy's supposed to be a "Blue Dog" Democrat. The GOP let him run unopposed last year. Senator Dianne Feinstein Score: 0 Senator Barbara Boxer Score: 0

July 09, 2009

outsidedge said:

... To The New American: Thank you so much for this breakdown. It will be very useful in writing to elected officials and in future voting. Unfortunately, I'm in a very heavily democratic state where the Constitution of the U.S.A. is rarely upheld; however, I do send occasional comments to house and senate out-of-state republicans. My favorites have proven to be 100r;s and for those who are only "there" 80-90% of the time, well, I'll just send them a little reminder that 100% is something for them to move toward--they're close but no cigar. Below 80% deserves serious work to get close and they should probably be voted out. Since for too many years we've been drifting too far away from our wisely successful and revered Constitution, it's time at least republicans adhere to their responsibility to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the U.S.A.

July 09, 2009