Local Legislatures On Both Sides Get Good Grades on Poverty Issues

The National Center of Poverty Law put out their annual Poverty Scorecard, and while scrolling through it we started seeing a pattern. Democrats were all getting As and A+s, while Republicans were all getting Cs, Ds and Fs. Take our Senators for example: Democrat Bill Nelson got an A+, Republican...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

February 19, 2009

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The National Center of Poverty Law put out their annual Poverty Scorecard, and while scrolling through it we started seeing a pattern. Democrats were all getting As and A+s, while Republicans were all getting Cs, Ds and Fs. Take our Senators for example: Democrat Bill Nelson got an A+, Republican Mel Martinez barely passed with a D.

This pattern held up pretty well until we got to South Florida's congressmen. Our entire delegation, regardless of Party identifications, all got As! Kendrick Meek and Debbie Wasserman Schultz got perfect 100s, good for an A+. Meanwhile our Republican Trio, The Brothers Diaz-Balart and Ileaan Ros-Lehtinen all got 94s, good for an A.

The center picked various bills from the 2008 congressional session that best represented poverty issues, and graded Congressmen on whether they voted in ways to help the poors or not. The trio of Cuban-American legislature only disagreed with the center on one bill, the Congressional Budget Resolution. They stuck to party lines for that one, but otherwise it seems all three are more than willing to cross party lines to fight poverty.

See the full scorecard here.

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