Congressmen fail the middle class

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein at 6:48 AM on July 13, 2006.

According to the Drum Major Institute's 2005 legislative scorecard, the majority of congressmembers failed the middle class on key issues like health care and energy policy. However, as Jill of Feministe notes, congresswomen did a much better job of sticking up for the middle class than their male colleagues.

While only 16% of the House is female, 32% of those who scored A’s on the 2005 Scorecard were women- and, astonishingly, 40% of women in the House got A’s, compared to just 16% of men. In the Senate, which is only 14% female, 22% of Senators who scored A’s were women, and 14% of female senators got A’s, compared to 8% of male senators.

Congresswomen still aren’t doing well enough. The average grade that congresswomen earned in both the House and the Senate was just a “C”- but that’s still a significant improvement on the congressmen and Congress as a whole, whose overall average was an “F”. [DMI]

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.