Even though the Democratic majority vowed to return Congress to a path of fiscal responsibility, the 2008 appropriations bills were stuffed with wasteful pork projects. While Representatives John Campbell, Jeff Flake, Jeb Hensarling, Scott Garrett, and David Obey (1 amendment) offered 50 amendments to strip outrageous pork projects from the appropriations bills, only one amendment, offered by Rep. Jeff Flake, passed.
The Club for Growth has compiled a RePORK Card of all members’ votes on all 50 anti-pork amendments.
“Taxpayers have a right to know which congressmen stand up for them and which stand up for the special interests,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “Unfortunately, the Club for Growth RePORK Card shows that most congressmen care more about lining their buddies’ pockets than they care about protecting American taxpayers.”
Among the “Sweet 16” who chalked up perfect anti-pork scores by voting in favor of all 50 pork-stripping amendments…our own freshman Republican Rep. Dean Heller!
Also racking up a 100 percent score was Rep. John Shadegg, Arizona Republican and Honorary Chairman of the 2007 Conservative Leadership Conference in Reno/Sparks this coming October.
What about Nevada’s other two congress-critters, you ask?
Well, the good news is that Republican Rep. Jon Porter topped Democrat Rep. Shelley Berkley on the RePORK Card.
The bad news is that her score was a miserable 2 percent.
And his was…10 percent.
That’s right…*Republican* Jon Porter only voted against 5 of 50 pork projects.
Shameful. Disappointing. Embarrassing.
And this is the guy Republicans hope will take out Harry Reid in 2010?
Posted on August 9th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
Blogosphere Response to the Pork Scorecard…
Glenn Reynolds writes, “Incumbistan is a one-party state. Upside: My own congressman, Jimmy Duncan, scored 88%, which I actually find somewhat surprising.” The Citizens Journals blog reports the scores of the Arkansas delegation. (scroll down) Hoy St…
I felt sorry watching Flake, on C-SPAN, as he tried to shame Murtha et.al. to no avail. If the Congress anly had another 200 members like him!
Today’s Wall Street Journal had an editorial about the RePork Card. According to the editorial, the average Democrat score on the 50 votes was 2%, so Congresswoman Berkley would actually get a “C” if this were graded on a curve, and I’m sure that’s how she’ll try to spin it. The average Republican score was 43%, so Congressman Porter gets an “F” with or without the curve.
Also, you talk about 16 members of Congress who achieved perfect scores of 100% on the 50 votes. Unfortunately, there were 105 members (81 Democrats, 24 Republicans) who had perfect scores of zero. These 105 members constitute 24% of the House of Representatives.