A total of ten votes were used to score the current Senate on their views of economic and trade related issues. Senators elected in 2004 were excluded because they do not have a voting record that is covered by the 107th and 108th Congress. Senators that were defeated in 2004 or 2002 were also not scored. Senators that were elected in 2002 were scored based only on the votes they could have voted for. This means that Senators Murkowski (Alaska), Pryor (Arkansas), Coleman (Minnesota), Talent (Missouri), Sununu (New Hampshire), Lautenberg (New Jersey), Alexander (Tennessee), and Cornyn (Texas) were scored on eight votes, not ten. If a Senator was in office it was assumed he could have voted on the legislation and not-voting was scored the same as voting against the position favored by the scorecard. This contributed to the extremely low score of Senator Kerry, who spent most of his time campaigning instead of being a Senator.

Vote 1- No Child Left Behind: President Bush was elected promising a vast expansion of the role of the federal government in education. This was a change from previous stances of Republican presidential candidates. On December 18, 2001 the Senate voted on the “No Child Left Behind” Act, which created an unfunded mandate that forced state and local governments to raise their property taxes. Ultimately the goal should be to seek the repeal of this legislation.

Vote 2- Farm Bill: In a reversal of the Freedom to Farm Act of 1996 the Senate passed on May 8, 2002 a new Farm Bill that would greatly expand agricultural subsidies. A “no” vote was favored because most of this money goes to large agribusiness, not the family farms that are used as a mascot for agricultural subsidies.

Vote 3- Across the Board Cuts: On January 17, 2003 Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) offered an amendment to H.J. Res. 2, the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution, 2003, to eliminate all the 2.9% across-the-board cuts in discretionary spending. No proposal was provided for how to offset these spending increases, which would have added to the deficit. The scorecard opposed this amendment.

Vote 4- Highway Spending: Transportation policy is arguable the biggest area of the federal government that should be devolved to the states. On March 21, 2003 an amendment was introduced by several Senators that would have increased highway spending by borrowing money from the general revenue, instead of drawing on the trust fund created with revenue from the federal gas tax.

Vote 5- Defense Spending: Many politicians use defense spending as a convenient excuse for pork barrel projects that send money back to their districts. On July 16, 2003 Senator McCain introduced an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act that would have removed programs that were not authorized or requested. Although it was defeated, the scorecard favored this attempt at spending restraint.

Vote 6- Cuba Travel Ban: Free trade typically revolves around the movement of goods and services, and is traditionally favored by libertarians. We also favor the free travel of people, and as such we oppose embargo placed against Cuba. On October 23, 2003 the Senate voted on an amendment by Senator Dorgan to relax the restrictions against traveling to Cuba, which we view as a step in the right direction.

Vote 7- Congressional Pay Raises: During a period of growing deficits and when many Americans cannot find jobs we don’t believe that Congress should receive automatic pay raises. On October 23, 2003 Senator Feingold attempted to block the automatic pay raises that Congress receives unless they vote otherwise. Although it failed, we support his attempt.

Vote 8- Energy Subsidies: On November 21, 2003, the Senate voted on a motion to invoke cloture on H.R. 6, the Energy Policy Act of 2003. The bill contained more than $95 billion in subsidies to the energy industry. The Senate rejected the motion by a vote of 57 yeas to 40 nays, with 65 yeas needed. The scorecard supported the nays.

Vote 9- Medicare Prescription Drugs: The November 25, 2003 vote on the addition of a prescription drug benefit to Medicare was included on the scorecard because of the huge increased in spending that would come with it. Much of this spending would be in the form of subsidies given to the pharmaceutical companies as a way to supposedly control costs. The scorecard was opposed to this boondoggle.

Vote 10- USA-Morocco FTA: The global war against terrorism needs to include attempts at bringing the Middle East into the world economy. There were several votes involved in free trade during the 107th and 108th Congresses, but this one was picked because of the particular importance in lowering trade barriers with the Middle Eastern world.

A Republican scored the highest in the economic axis of this scorecard, Senator Sununu of New Hampshire. New Hampshire was voted as the focus of the Free State Project, and also was the only state to switch from red to blue in the 2004 election. Elected in 2002, Senator Sununu was only able to vote on the seven pieces of legislation in the 108th Congress on the scorecard. He voted with the scorecard on all but one, the vote on congressional pay raises.

Other high ranking Senators included Senator Feingold of Wisconsin (80%), Senator McCain of Arizona (80%), Senator Thomas and Enzi of Wyoming (Both 60%), Senator Chafee of Rhode Island (60%), Senator Bingaman of New Mexico (60%), Senator Gregg of New Hampshire (60%), Senator Ensign of Nevada (60%), Senator Hagel of Nebraska (60%), Senator Collins of Maine (60%), Senator Grassley of Iowa (60%), and Senator Allard of Colorado (60%). Republicans clearly dominated the high scorers, but two Democrats did manage to make it into the top. Senator Feingold’s two deviations were the across the board spending cuts, and the USA-Morocco FTA vote. Bingaman’s votes that went against the scorecard were in favor of No Child Left Behind, against the across the board spending cuts, for highway spending, and for congressional pay raises.

The average score for the chamber was 39.97%, meaning that Senators voted with the scorecard a little less than four times out of ten. The votes with the largest number of Senators voting with the scorecard were the Cuba travel ban and the USA-Morocco FTA. The least popular positions were opposing No Child Left Behind, the highway spending, and the defense spending. The average Republican score was 41.93%, and the average Democrat scored 37.79%, counting Jeffords as a Democrat. The lowest score for the Democrat was Senator Kerry of Massachusetts (0%), who was off campaigning and skipped many of the votes. Senator Dorgan of North Dakota (10%) was another low scorer. Senator Shelby of Alabama (10%) was the lowest Republican. The greatest divide between the parties was over the across the board cuts, which Republicans favored far more than Democrats, and the energy subsidies, which Democrats opposed far more than Republicans.

In 2006 one third of the Senate will be up for reelection. The score of these Senators is of particular importance as the voters will soon be able to decide on if they wish to reelect them or not. Four Senators have already declared that they will not run for another term, Senator Sarbanes of Maryland (40%), Senator Dayton of Minnesota (40%), Senator Frist of Tennessee (40%), and Senator Jeffords of Vermont (50%). Several other Senate races are already expected to be battlegrounds, and the following are potentially vulnerable incumbents:

Arizona: Republican Senator Kyl (50%)
Florida: Democratic Senator Nelson (50%)
Michigan: Democratic Senator Stabenow (50%)
Missouri: Republican Senator Bond (20%)
Montana: Republican Senator Burns (20%)
Nebraska: Democratic Senator Nelson (40%)
North Dakota: Democratic Senator Conrad (30%)
Pennsylvania: Republican Senator Santorum (50%)
Rhode Island: Republican Senator Chafee (60%)
Virginia: Republican Senator Allen (30%)
West Virginia: Democratic Senator Byrd (30%)

I have presented the entire scorecard with a breakdown of how each Senator voted in a document file. X's indicate that the Senator was not able to vote. Blanks indicated that the Senator did not vote with the scorecard, either because they cast a vote against the scorecard or were absent. A 10 indicates that the Senator voted with the scorecard. The Total is their raw score, while the Percent indicates their score based on how many possible votes they could have cast.