The Herald
The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today honored Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) as a Taxpayer Superhero for scoring 100 percent on its 2011 Congressional Ratings. The average for the entire Senate was 49 percent. Since 1991, CCAGW has tracked roll call votes to separate the taxpayer advocates in Congress from those who favor wasteful programs and pork-barrel spending. In 2011, Sen. Toomey was one of just two senators to receive perfect scores, a rating made even more impressive by the fact that no members of the House of Representatives received a 100 percent rating.
“Actions speak louder than words,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz. “Sen. Toomey demonstrated his true commitment to fiscal discipline through his voting record, as well as leading the effort to change the culture of wasteful spending in the nation’s capital.”
CCAGW’s 2011 Congressional Ratings scored 120 votes in the House and 38 votes in the Senate. By comparison, in 2010, CCAGW rated 46 votes in the House and 62 votes in the Senate. The shift in vote numbers is largely due to an uptick in the number of important spending cut votes in the Republican-led House, as well as a scarcity of substantive votes in the Democratic-led Senate. CCAGW rates members on a 0 to 100 percent scale. Members are placed in the following categories: 0-19% Hostile; 20-39% Unfriendly; 40-59% Lukewarm; 60-79% Friendly; 80-99% Taxpayer Hero; 100% Taxpayer Super Hero.
“Senator Toomey has been an invaluable ally for taxpayers and for anyone who abhors wasteful, bloated government,” added Schatz. “He is a staunch advocate for free enterprise and for limited, efficient government, as evidenced by his 2011 votes to end misguided programs like $1.2 billion for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine and $200 million for the Essential Air Service.
“Fortunately, Senator Toomey has had the taxpayers’ backs at every turn throughout his career in Washington, not just in 2011. His hard work on achieving a permanent earmark moratorium for all federal appropriations bills has been particularly important, and it is not an understatement to say that the corrupt practice of pork-barrel spending would be much more rampant without his steadfast leadership,” Schatz concluded.
The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.
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