New Mexico’s Congressional Delegation Votes Against Taxpayers

If you’ve been paying attention to the various debates taking place in Congress over the past year from health care to climate change to financial services, you may be aware that our delegation has found itself on the side of bigger government and against taxpayers time and time again.

For a more specific snapshot of this situation, I point you to the recently released report from the National Taxpayers Union: “NTU Rates Congress”. Unlike some other Congressional scorecards, EVERY vote of importance to taxpayers is included. Members are given a letter grade and a percentage indicating how often they voted for/against taxpayers.

So, how did our Congresspeople do? The answer is, not well at all.
Harry Teague led the pack with a “D.” He voted with the taxpayers 25% of the time.
Martin Heinrich received an “F” and voted with taxpayers 7% of the time.
Ben Ray Lujan received an “F” and only managed to vote with taxpayers 4% of the time.

Our senators were even worse.

Supposedly “moderate” Jeff Bingaman received an “F” and voted with taxpayers only 4% of the time. Udall also received an “F” and edged Bingaman out by voting with taxpayers 5% of the time. Notably, Jeff Bingaman’s voting with taxpayers only 4% of the time is tied for worst in the Senate. Only a handful of the most left-wing members of the Senate like John Kerry (D) Mass. and Tom Harkin (D) Iowa voted for bigger government and against taxpayers as often.

None of our Senators are up for election in 2010, but all three of our House members are.