By Maggie Thurber | Special to Ohio Watchdog
How do Ohio's representatives in Congress rank when it comes to reducing federal debt?
The Club for Growth has issued a new Spending Cut Scorecard that tracks amendments to FY 2013 U.S. House of Representatives appropriations bills that “reduce spending and use the savings for debt reduction.”
It only tracks spending cut amendments — 25 so far — and will be updated as the appropriations process continues. The votes are weighted equally.
The results are not good for Ohioans interested in cutting federal government spending, as only four members of the Ohio delegation scored above 50 percent.
Rep. Steve Chabot, R-District 1, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-District 4, scored the best with 96 percent each. This means they voted in favor of the tracked amendments 96 percent of the time. Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-District 2, was followed with a score of 80 percent.
The next grouping includes the first Democrat:
- 52 percent for Rep. Bob Latta, R-District 5,
- 48 percent for Rep. Bill Johnson, R-District 6,
- 44 percent for Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-District 12, and
- 30 percent for Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-District 10.
Due to population loss and congressional redistricting, Kucinich’s District 10 was combined with District 9, currently represented by Marcy Kaptur, also a Democrat. Kaptur won the primary and is seeking election to the newly-drawn district.
Kaptur, along with three other Democrats, had a 0 percent rating. The others were Rep. Marcia Fudge, District 11, Rep. Betty Sutton, District 13, and Rep. Tim Ryan, District 17.
The remaining Ohio congressional delegation rankings are:
- 28 percent for Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-District 18
- 20 percent for Rep. Steve Stivers, R-District 15
- 16 percent for Rep. Steve Austria, R-District 7, Rep. Jim Renacci, R-District 16, and Rep. Michael Turner, R-District 3, and
- 4 percent for Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-District 14.
Chabot, Johnson, Stivers and Renacci ran as tea party candidates.
