Heritage Action for America quickly becoming a force for reining in spending

MoveOn gets all the headlines, and the AFL-CIO’s chief does meet with the president regularly. But it’s looking like Heritage Action for America is becoming a more key Washington player, at least in the ongoing battle to rein in government spending.

Here’s why this seems to be the case. Last week, Heritage Action released its spending scorecard of Republicans in the House. Forty-seven of them earned high marks, while others earned less high marks. Among the latter, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA). Wittman, it turns out, had a family tragedy that caused him to miss some key votes that factored into the scorecard. Rather than let the poor score stand, Wittman rang up Heritage Action late Friday afternoon to make his case. That resulted in this post, in which his situation is noted and his votes re-tallied.

I see this as all to the good. Heritage Action is doing great work holding our reps accountable, and Rep. Wittman has turned out to be a rep who cares enough to make sure that the record accurately reflects his fidelity to reining in spending. He wants voters to know that he’s being part of the solution.

Time, not our favorite magazine by any means but nevertheless, cites the group as a spending watchdog even though they’ve been around less than a year. Heritage Action is shaping up to be one to watch in Washington.