Reverse the Trend

Today I received my 2010 Congressional Scorecard from the Club for Growth. The scorecard is the Club for Growth’s rating system for legislators positions in regards to economic growth. The scale is simple. Zero is the worst possible score and 100 is the best possible score. Naturally, I looked up my home state of Illinois and this is what it showed:

Senate – Dick Durbin and Roland Burris both had scores of zero which ranked them last.

House – There are 19 members in the House of Representatives. Four of Illinois’ representatives had scores of zero (Luis Gutierrez, Jesse Jackson Jr., Mike Quigley, and Jan Schakowsky). Five more couldn’t even crack double digits (Melissa Bean, Danny Davis, Bill Foster, Phil Hare, and Bobby Rush). Three more scored at 20 or below (Jerry Costello, Debbie Halvorson, and Dan Lipinski). All in all, 12 of 19 representatives couldn’t even hit “blackjack” on the Club for Growth scorecard.

You may have noticed that these were all Democrats, but Illinois Republicans demonstrated that “better” is a relative term. Mark Kirk, who was elected to the Senate last November had the worst score among Republicans at 66. The next most prominent Republicans, Judy Biggert and Peter Roskam, scored 72 and 75 respectively. The highest scoring Illinois representative was John Shimkus with a score of 84 which ranked him at 114 of 435. This means that Illinois did not have a single representative in the top quartile.

What does this mean? Well, the Club for Growth scorecard didn’t tell us anything that we didn’t already know. We stink! Illinois has been on a suicidal path toward economic ruination. But there is good news…

Afterall, we were intelligent enough to see the writing on the wall in many districts and some of the worst offenders were voted out of office. What I got out of the scorecard, and I hope others get out of it as well, is that we have a lot of work left to do. We need to continue to promote candidates that promote and support pro-growth policies. It’s the economy! Debt and financial hardship makes slaves of us all.