 | Celebrate Milton Friedman and You Could Win $50! |
 Vote for your favorite tax reform plan and you could win a $50 Visa gift card!
The great economist Milton Friedman spent his life researching ways to improve America’s tax system and now it’s your turn to say which fundamental reforms need to happen. Knowing how Friedman also recognized the power of incentives, NTUF has prizes for some lucky winners, including a $50 Visa gift card, books, and other Team Taxpayer swag. Vote now!  In the Washington, D.C. area? Join us as NTUF teams up with the Tax Foundation and Liberty on the Rocks D.C. to toast Friedman on July 29th at the Laughing Man Tavern. More details here. There will also be a chance with win gift cards at this event too so do both and double your chances!
| Support Fiscal Transparency Research! |
With the release of the BillTally's First Session report, we would like to THANK YOU for your continued support of NTUF research and education efforts. Thanks to your financial contributions, our researchers have been able to analyze and score thousands of introduced bills and to provide taxpayers with a more complete picture of how Members of Congress intend to spend your tax dollars. It is an enormous effort to maintain our massive database of spending data and we're asking for your help. Scoring a single bill can take hours or even days, involve multiple calls to Capitol Hill, and require tracking down spending baselines by digging through budget documents. Then we still must run the cost estimate through a program to make sure that they are correctly matched with each Member of Congress who sponsors or cosponsors the bill. Another reason that the BillTally system research process is so time-intensive is that the data is constantly double-checked for accuracy so that reporters, public officials, and taxpayers can find out the potential cost of nearly every bill with ease. This is why we need more funds. The research that we conduct is vital to showing the true costs of Congressional proposals, candidates running for federal office, and the President's fiscal spending plans. With your tax-deductible contribution, you give the gift of knowledge to taxpayers across the nation and show legislators in Washington, D.C. that spending is out of control. You are the most important part of our work! Your financial support and you telling your friends and family helps us inform more Americans in more ways on more issues everyday. Please consider becoming a NTUF partner today! | BillTally Breakdowns: Chamber/Party Agendas |
 BillTally tracks the net change in spending that would result from the passage of legislation introduced in Congress. Between the House and the Senate, we identified 828 bills that would lead to a net increase in federal spending and 168 that would reduce outlays. We can also calculate the net spending agenda of each Member of Congress based on the bills that they support through sponsorship and cosponsorship. This is an area of activity where Representatives and Senators have absolute freedom, there is none of the party pressure that often comes with votes.
The BillTally data tracks a range of fiscal records based on the types of legislation that Members author and cosponsor. Some Members' agendas include more spending cuts than increases. To the extent that agendas are not offset with spending cuts, the difference for the new spending would have to come through increased taxes or an increase of the federal debt, which could lead to pressure for higher taxes down the road. Below are some stats on House and Senate agendas: - Average Net Agenda: $144.8 Billion
- Median Agenda: $7.7 Billion
- Members with Agendas to Reduce Spending: 203
- Members with Agendas Greater Than $100 Billion: 68
House Democrats - Average Net Agenda: $396.5 Billion
- Median Agenda: $65.7 Billion
- Range: $2.3 Billion to $1.46 Trillion
House Republicans - Average Net Agenda: -$82.6 Billion (in savings)
- Median Agenda: -$70.4 Billion (in savings)
- Range: -$268.7 Billion (in savings) to
- Average Net Agenda: -$53.5 Billion (in savings)
- Median Agenda: $1.5 Billion
- Net Cutters: 46
- Members with Agendas > $100 Billion: 1
Senate Democrats - Average Net Agenda: $18.3 Billion
- Median Agenda: $16.5 Billion
- Range: -$2.3 Billion (in savings) to $48.1 Billion
Senate Republicans - Average Net Agenda: -$159.1 Billion (in savings)
- Median Agenda: -$150.5 Billion (in savings)
- Range: -$317.2 Billion to $596 Million
Use the special hashtag #YourRepYourTab to tweet out your elected officials' spending agendas! The Bottom Line: NTUF’s BillTally project continues to track the spending and savings proposed by Congress. Though spending continues to, on net, increase, taxpayers and Members of Congress are now better able to see exactly where and how legislators would change the federal budget. |
For media and special data requests, please contact Director of Research Demian Brady or Research & Outreach Manager Dan Barrett. BillTally Resources | 
