I’ll be honest here – when I saw the National Taxpayers Union gave Johnny Isakson an award for being a friend of taxpayers, the organization, the people who work for the organization, and any award the organization has given (or will give) lost a lot of credibility in my book. But to be fair, they gained back some of the lost credibility with a very cordial response explaining the decision process.
This submission from Andrew Moyland of the NTU was posted as a comment on a previous post. I decided to post it here on the front page because of two reasons. First, the NTU doesn’t answer to me, and they were not obligated to respond at all. Second, I read the response as a sincere reply and not a canned “thank you for your opinion” letter. Here is what Mr. Moyland had to say:
The explanation is a good one. They’re saying that in 2009, he voted along party lines to oppose the Democrats. The other party is in the White House now, so Isakson’s newly found conservatism is pretty easily explained. I still disagree with them calling Isakson a friend of taxpayers.
The purpose of this blog isn’t to critique the NTU, so I’ll keep this short. It’s important to note that when you call a Senator a taxpayers’ friend, you really need to consider more than just one year of a voting record. Nobody who voted for TARP should ever be called a taxpayers’ friend. Nobody who has ever voted for an unbalanced budget should ever be called a taxpayers’ friend.
Based on those to tests alone, the NTU would be giving out a lot fewer awards. The problem is that they’ve recognized Isakson as being something he is not. It’s like congratulating a toddler for not swiping cookies in the last 5 minutes when he’s standing in a pile of crumbs. Isakson is going to carry on with his liberal RINO ways thinking that he’s a good fiscal conservative because the NTU once said so.
Awards like this should be reserved for those that truly deserve them. When they’re given to people who don’t deserve them, the importance of the award is lost. And what a waste it is to lose the importance of a taxpayers’ friend award on a big spender like Johnny Isakson.
My name is Andrew Moylan and I’m Director of Government Affairs for the National Taxpayers Union. I’d like to explain a little about why Senator Isakson won our Taxpayers’ Friend Award.
Our annual Rating of Congress includes every single roll call vote on tax and fiscal policy. We weight them based on importance (things like government-run health care get 100 points, minor programs get just a few) and then see how each Member’s voting record stacks up. For 2009, we included 227 Senate roll call votes on just about every fiscal issue imaginable.
Our Rating does NOT, however, look at anything but the roll call votes cast on the floor of the Senate that year. That means that a Member’s stated positions on issues that don’t receive floor votes or votes that they cast in 2008 (like on the Wall Street bailout, which we vehemently opposed and gave the maximum weight of 100 points) aren’t included in the 2009 Rating.
We do the math based on a long-established methodology and let the chips fall where they may. In 2009, Senator Isakson voted the right way and got a 90%. In 2008, when he voted for TARP, he received a 50%
If any of your readers are interested in educating themselves more about the Rating or looking up the 227 votes that we included, they can go to http://www.ntu.org/on-capitol-hill/ntu-rates-congress/. If that’s not enough, I’d be happy to answer specific questions by phone: 703-683-5700. Just ask for me.