National Taxpayers Union:<\/a> For Immediate Release,\u00a0Thursday, Contact:,\u00a0Pete Sepp, Natasha Altamirano (703) 683-5700<\/p>\nSenator Jim DeMint Honored as \u201cTaxpayers\u2019 Best Friend\u201d for Third Year in a Row<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2013 The nation\u2019s largest taxpayer group today recognized Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) for achieving the best pro-taxpayer voting record in the U.S. Senate last year. The 362,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU), a nonpartisan citizen group, has announced that Sen. DeMint was the top Senate scorer in its annual Rating of Congress for the third year in a row.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf every Member of Congress voted as responsibly as Sen. DeMint did in 2008, Americans would enjoy much lower taxes and less government waste,\u201d NTU President Duane Parde said. \u201cJim DeMint\u2019s record speaks for itself: He has truly earned the title of \u2018Taxpayers\u2019 Best Friend.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. DeMint is among only a few dozen 2008 \u201cTaxpayers\u2019 Friend Award\u201d recipients out of the entire House of Representatives and Senate. The award is given to Representatives and Senators who achieve an \u201cA\u201d grade in NTU\u2019s annual Rating of Congress. The Rating, which is based on every roll call vote affecting fiscal policy, assigns a \u201cTaxpayer Score\u201d to each Member of Congress that indicates his or her support for reducing or controlling federal spending, taxes, debt, and regulation. For 2008, a total of 182 House and 104 Senate votes were selected.<\/p>\n
\u201cJim DeMint\u2019s pro-taxpayer score of 96 percent was the highest in the entire Senate,\u201d Parde continued. \u201cBy consistently voting to reduce federal spending, taxes, and debt, Sen. DeMint has demonstrated he is a true leader in the fight to defend overburdened taxpayers across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between 2007 and 2008, the average \u201cTaxpayer Score\u201d in the House rose slightly from 35 percent to 36 percent. The Senate\u2019s average dropped by five points, from 37 percent to 32 percent. In 2008, 48 lawmakers attained scores sufficient to win the \u201cTaxpayers\u2019 Friend Award\u201d (at least 80 percent in the House and 76 percent in the Senate). Meanwhile, a record 267 Senators and Representatives captured the title of \u201cBig Spender\u201d for posting \u201cF\u201d grades (scores of 25 percent or less in the House and 14 percent or less in the Senate).<\/p>\n
Unlike those of other organizations, NTU\u2019s annual Rating does not simplistically focus on only a handful of equally weighted \u201ckey votes.\u201d For this reason, it has received praise from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including the late Sen. (and \u201cGolden Fleece Award\u201d creator) William Proxmire (D-WI).<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven today\u2019s economic climate, fiscal discipline is more important now than ever,\u201d Parde concluded. \u201cHard-working families in South Carolina and across the country owe Jim DeMint a debt of gratitude for his hard work on their behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n
NTU is a nonpartisan, nonprofit citizen group founded in 1969 to work for lower taxes, smaller government, and economic freedom at all levels. Note: The 2008 Rating and a searchable Rating database from 1992 to 2008 is available at\u00a0www.ntu.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sen. Jim DeMint got yet another award for his strong principles on taxes and spending. I’m glad to see Sen. get recognition, yet I’m disappointed that there aren’t more conservatives in Washington to share these awards with. National Taxpayers Union: For Immediate Release,\u00a0Thursday, Contact:,\u00a0Pete Sepp, Natasha Altamirano (703) 683-5700 Senator Jim DeMint Honored as \u201cTaxpayers\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2gEQ0-jC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Sen. Jim DeMint got yet another award for his strong principles on taxes and spending. I’m glad to see Sen. get recognition, yet I’m disappointed that there aren’t more conservatives in Washington to share these awards with.<\/p>\n