Fourth Freedom Index for the 111th Congress
Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

The New American’s semi-annual congressional scorecard, entitled “The Freedom Index," rates all members of Congress based on their adherence to constitutional principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, national sovereignty, and a traditional foreign policy of avoiding foreign entanglements.

Since every Congressman takes an oath to uphold the Constitution, every Congressman should earn a perfect score on a congressional scorecard based on the U.S. Constitution. But that is far from the case, as both the "Freedom Index" and the unconstitutional actions of the federal government indicate.

All four installments of "The Freedom Index" are available below in PDF format. Each rates every member of the U.S. House and Senate based on 10 key votes.

• From the July 20, 2009 issue of The New American — votes 1-10 (click here for pdf)

• From our December 7, 2009 issue — votes 11-20 (pdf)

• From our July 5, 2010 issue — votes 21-30 (pdf)

• From our October 29, 2010 issue — votes 31-40 (pdf)

Please take a look at one or more installments of the "Freedom Index" to see, in particular, how your own U.S. Representative and Senators scored. The fourth (final) installment for the 111th Congress includes votes on the anti-freedom-of-speech DISCLOSE Act, the new financial regulatory “reform” law that ramps up federal control of the financial sector, supplemental appropriations legislation that adds an additional $58.8 billion in “emergency” spending to an already-bloated budget for the current fiscal year, and a failed House effort to delete the individual mandate to purchase health insurance from the unconstitutional ObamaCare law.

Many other important votes can be found in the earlier “Freedom Indexes,” but perhaps the votes weighing most heavily on constituents’ minds right now (and for good reason) are the historic votes creating ObamaCare — see House votes 27 and 29 and Senate votes 25 and 28 in our third “Freedom Index” for the 111th Congress (pdf).

Once you have researched how your Congressmen voted in Washington, please encourage others to do the same. Also, please let your elected representatives know what you think of their voting records, and please keep this in mind when you go to the polls.