NTU publishes a highly influential, nonpartisan rating of Congress each year. The NTU Foundation, our research and education arm, runs BillTally and VoteTally, which calculate the net spending that would result from each bill that is introduced or voted on in Congress.

Politicians talk, that’s what they do. We find the bottom line, that’s what we do.

Since the 2000 Presidential race, NTU Foundation has tracked the agendas of the major candidates seeking the White House – and also candidates in key Senate races from year to year – to cut through the rhetoric, focus on the substantive issues, and help inform taxpayers about the bottom line costs of the proposals.

In our analyses, we show our readers exactly what the candidate said, in their own words. We pour through the contestants’ campaign websites, go line-by-line through debate transcripts, and monitor national newspapers for any policy prescriptions that could lead to a net change in spending then we report the net cost to taxpayers.

Each report we release groups the candidate’s quotations by issue area, shows how much the proposal would impact spending per year, and where or how we calculated the cost. For each candidate, we track the number of proposals that would increase spending and the number of savings items. And of course, the net spending agenda so taxpayers can easily see if the quantifiable proposals would add to the budget burden, or find outlay savings.