The Shuler Doctrine: Sack the Taxpayer

While the following incident probably won’t make its way into Roll Call’s next installment of Heard on the Hill, it is certainly newsworthy – especially if you reside in North Carolina’s 11^th district.

Amidst a happy hour last night at a well known Capitol Hill establishment that serves as a popular after-work destination for Hill staffers, a patron confidently boasts “taxes, taxes, taxes, I have no problem with more taxes, bring ‘em on.” While this sentiment is prevalent amongst the Democrat majority in congress, it may be of interest to voters in North Carolina’s 11^th

district that this proclamation came from the mouth of none other than Congressman Heath Shuler’s Chief of Staff.

While I do not share his proclivity for government sanctioned theft, the gentleman was only proving that not only does the Shuler office walk the walk – it talks the talk. In his first 7 months in office, Representative Shuler has voted to increase your taxes on numerous occasions, with his support for the farm bill last week and the energy bill passed in June as the most recent examples.

Although this is bad news for their pocket books, the good news is that 11^th district voters only have to wait 15 months to let Shuler know if they share his fondness for taxes. Taxpayers can only hope that Shuler’s current term is even more brief than his first visit to Washington.