Kuhl: A Taxpayer's Best Friend

Two days ago, Rottenchester reported on Channel 13's hit job "in-depth story" on Congressman Kuhl's bipartisan fact-finding mission to Brazil. 13WHAM's web article posed the following question, "How much did it cost taxpayers for U.S. Representative Randy Kuhl (R, N.Y.) to spend six days in Brazil?" The figures haven't come out yet, but I can only assume that it was a few thousand dollars.

As part of my response to this story, I wanted to contrast this with the millions of dollars that Congressman Kuhl has saved average taxpayers through his votes in Congress. So, I contacted Americans for Tax Reform to get its response on Kuhl's tax record. This morning, I received the following statement from ATR President, Grover Norquist:

Randy Kuhl has pledged in writing to the people of his district that he would oppose income tax hikes. He has kept his word. On a series of tax and limited government votes, Kuhl has demonstrated real leadership. In the last Congress, he had a "Hero of the Taxpayer" voting score of 92%. [OntarioGOP Note: Kuhl's ATR rating in 2006 was 95%, and in 2005 was 88%, giving him a combined ATR score of 92% in the 109th Congress.]

Kuhl's strength in defending the taxpayers of the 29th district of New York is particularly-praiseworthy given the unrelenting opposition of Big Labor. Time and again, he has sided with taxpayers over corrupt union bosses seeking to spend taxpayer dollars to enrich themselves.

Question to Channel 13: Why do you want to investigate the cost of a few thousand dollars for a legitimate, previously disclosed trip, while ignoring the tax savings that Congressman Kuhl's constituents have received through his service?