A Washington-based group advocating limited government has ranked North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx and Sen. Richard Burr, both Republicans, in its top tier of fiscally conservative lawmakers in 2009.
The Club for Growth’s latest congressional scorecard, released Monday, gave perfect marks to nine representatives and six senators on issues such as tax reform, free trade, and deregulation. Foxx garnered 100 percent on the report and Burr 96 percent.
It’s the second time in as many years that Foxx, who hails from the strongly Republican 5th Congressional District, has earned a perfect ranking from the group. Burr’s counterpart, Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, earned 6 percent on the scorecard.
Reps. Mike McIntyre, D-7th (35 percent); Larry Kissell, D-8th (31 percent); and Heath Shuler, D-11th (27 percent) were the highest ranking Democrats. All three lawmakers voted against the Obama administration’s health care reform package passed by Congress in March.
Rep. Brad Miller, D-13th, scored the lowest in the Tar Heel delegation at zero percent, followed by Mel Watt, D-12th, and David Price, D-4th, at 4 percent each.
Another report released a month ago by Citizens Against Government Waste found that the delegation reduced its share of pork barrel spending by 21 percent compared with 2009.
The Tar Heel State ranked 43rd nationally in earmarks, spending $144,384,900. Coming in at No. 1 was Hawaii, followed by North Dakota, West Virginia, and Alaska.
Price secured $208,000 for “beaver management” expenses in the state. Price also teamed up with Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-2nd, to nail down $349,000 to study “swine and other animal waste management.”
David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.