As Presidential Contenders Cite Fiscal Ratings from Citizen Groups, National Taxpayers Union Offers Clarification on Its Scorecard Results

(Alexandria,VA) – During last night’s debate among Republican Presidential candidates,several citizen groups’ congressional scorecards entered the spotlightincluding the National Taxpayers Union’s (NTU’s) annual Rating of Congress. Inorder to provide the most complete picture possible, today NTU offeredadditional information and clarification on its Rating system and results.

Each year since 1979, NTU hasissued a Ratingof all Members of Congress based on everyroll call vote affecting federal taxes, spending, debt, and regulation (oftenhundreds of votes in a given year). Votes are weighted according to theirfiscal impact, and are tabulated to produce for each lawmaker a Taxpayer Scorerepresenting their level of support for limited government and opposition tobigger government. Since 1992, NTU has issued letter grades (often based on acurve) in order to allow citizens to better interpret Taxpayer Scores.

Yesterday evening, candidate Rick Santorum said:

“The Weekly Standard just did a review, looking at theNational Taxpayers Union, I think, Citizens Against Government Waste, and theymeasured me up against the other 50 senators who were serving when I did andthey said that I was the most fiscally conservative senator in the Congress inthe -- in the 12 years that I was there.”

Clarification: The analysis referred to bySantorum during the debate, was performed by the Weekly Standard based on NTUdata. The analysis and conclusions of the Weekly Standard’s article –particularly the “GPA” methodology discussed in that piece – are solely thework of the Standard.  Given the recentinterest surrounding NTU’s Rating, the following tables provide completeinformation on Taxpayer Scores for Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorumfor the years they served in Congress.

*Speakers of the House vote rarely. These provisional scores are based on limited attendance