Duncan Tennessee’s Top Fiscal Conservative

WASHINGTON – Congressman John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-Tenn.) was ranked one of the most fiscally conservative lawmakers and the top defender of taxpayers from Tennessee by the Nation’s leading taxpayer watchdog group.

The National Taxpayer’s Union (NTU) gave Rep. Duncan a score of 94-percent for his voting record in 2013, placing him third out of the 430 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives who were scored and first from Tennessee.  His ranking earned him the “Taxpayers’ Friend Award.”  

Rep. Duncan’s score was within one-percent of the first and second place winners, Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan and Tom McClintock of California, who each scored 95-percent.

NTU’s annual rating sets the standard for fiscal scorecards by including every roll call vote having an impact on tax, fiscal, trade, and regulatory policy and not just a handful of “key votes.”  The 2013 score included 253 votes.

“I am really honored to get this top score,” Duncan said. “It is based off of every single spending vote. You have to really focus on the taxpayers and vote against a lot of special interests to get a ranking this high.”

“If other Members of Congress had voted the way I have over the years we would have very little debt at all if any, and this country would be booming beyond belief,” Duncan continued.  “We are headed to a very dangerous place financially, and unless the Congress becomes much more fiscally conservative we will not have enough money to pay for all the promises we have made. It is far past time that we stop trying to run the whole world and put the American people first once again.”

The U.S. national debt currently stands at $17.89 trillion, which amounts to approximately $56,059 per citizen and $153,062 per taxpayer.*

“These are numbers so huge that no one can really comprehend them, and our debt is going much higher, much faster than ever before,” Duncan said.

To see NTU’s full ratings, go HERE.

*Source: U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve; debt per citizen equals total U.S. debt divided by number of citizens; debt per taxpayer equals total U.S. debt divided by number of U.S. income taxpayers.