GOP and Dems: Stark Differences on Income Redistribution

According to the 2007 Just Economic Distributions (JED) ratings, Republicans and Democrats in Congress are polar opposites on class warfare issues, with few legislators from either party diverging from the parties' traditional stands on taxing the rich and handouts to the poor. Only seven House Democrats scored higher than the lowest scoring House Republican on these issues. Similarly, only three Democrats in the Senate scored higher than the lowest scoring Republican in that chamber. It is unmistakable that legislators from the Republican Party are almost all more resistent to redistributive tendencies than almost every Democrat. The contrast between the parties on economic distribution issues could not be starker.

In the House, Nick Lampson (TX-22) and Gene Taylor (MS-4) scored the highest among Democrats, both with 55. Frank LoBiondo (NJ-2) scored the lowest among Republicans, with a 52. Among the House leadership, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA-8) scored a 2, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD-5) scored 12, and Minority Leader John Boehner (OH-8) scored a 97.

Over in the Senate, Maria Cantwell (WA) scored the highest of any Democrat, with 51. Olympia Snowe (ME) scored the lowest of any Republican, with 49. Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) scored an 8; Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) scored 96.

Five congressmen scored a perfect 100 for getting every vote correct: Michelle Bachmann (MN-6), John Abney Culberson (TX-7), Virginia Foxx (NC-5), Trent Franks (AZ-2), and Bill Sali (ID-1); they are all Republicans. Nine congressmen scored 0 for failing on all 22 votes: Xavier Becerra (CA-31), Lois Capps (CA-23), James Clyburn (SC-6), Jim McDermott (WA-7), George Miller (CA-7), David Price (NC-4), Linda Sanchez (CA-39), Henry Waxman (CA-30), and Peter Welch (VT-AL); all were Democrats. Only two senators scored a perfect 100, having voted correctly on all 15 votes: Republicans Tom Coburn (OK) and Jim DeMint (SC). Sen. James Inhofe [R], also of Oklahoma, did not vote incorrectly on any issue, but missed two of the 15 and thereby scored a 98. Three senators scored 0 by voting incorrectly on all 15 issues: Democrats Byron Dorgan (ND), Russell Feingold (WI), and Sheldon Whitehouse (RI).

The two major party presumptive nominees for president both missed about half the scored votes for 2007 and thus have scores that may vary greatly from their true values. However, both are within the mainstream of their party, with McCain veering closer to a centrist position.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain scored a 68, though this rating is only based on seven of the fifteen votes, the other eight being missed by the Arizona senator during the campaign season in the fall of 2007. McCain voted correctly on all four of these seven related to tax issues, while he voted with the redistributionists on two of the three related to the minimum wage.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, also missed a number of votes late in 2007. On the nine roll calls that he voted on, the senator from Illinois scored a 26. All nine votes were incompatible with just distributions. Five were on taxes, three on the minimum wage, and one on agricultural assistance. Interestingly, Sen. Hillary Clinton (NY) voted on the same nine roll calls as Obama, and voted exactly as he did on each one, thus also scoring 26.

It must be emphasized that missing votes make for very unreliable ratings. If McCain had voted correctly on the remaining eight votes, his score would be 92, but if he voted incorrectly on all eight, his score would be 49, a large potential variance from his given score. Similarly, if Obama (or Clinton) had voted for free markets on the seven roll calls he (or she) missed, he would have scored a 52; if all eight were for redistribution, he would have scored a 0. Other presidential candidates also missed votes and have ratings of questionable precision.

In the House, this year's criteria of 22 roll calls included six votes on low-income housing, four on taxes, two on education, two on labor, two on health, two on debt (mortgage) forgiveness, one on the minimum wage, and three others. In the Senate, the scoring criteria used 15 roll call votes: six on taxes, three on the minimum wage, two on agricultural assistance, and one each on education, free trade, transportation subsidies, and health care.

The scores are intended to reflect the percentage of legislators in the members' respective chambers who are more likely than the scored member to vote for policies that tax success and subsidize failure. For an overview of the JED rating system, see this Introduction. For the complete 2007 JED results, see: the House 2007 ratings, sorted by legislator's last name, state and district, rating (highest to lowest); and the Senate 2007 ratings, also sorted by legislator's last name, state and district, rating (highest to lowest).