Who's REALLY Pulling the Strings in North Carolina?

The Koch Brothers

It's no accident that at the same time N.C. Senate Republican leader Phil Berger was trotting out his big plan (surprise!) to eliminate corporate and personal income taxes in North Carolina and shift the tax burden to the poor and middle class through big increases in sales taxes, the Republican governor of Nebraska, Dave Heineman, was advocating the exact same thing to Nebraskans in his "state of the state" address.

Lo and behold, Bobby Jindal in Louisiana and Sam Brownback in Kansas are singing the same song. What's going on here?

It's the Koch Boys, acting principally through another of their "front" groups, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the outfit that pushed voter photo ID hard across the country, among other regressive measures that comfort the rich and afflict the rest of us.

'Course, in the dear old Tar Heel State, the Koches already had their Right Arm, Art Pope, who is now firmly in control of state government.

The ALEC philosophy for the Second Obama Term: Let the Muslim Kenyan have Washington. We've got the states, or at least some of them, and we intend to impose the Rich Man's Rule as quickly as possible.

(The connections between ALEC and NC Republican members of the General Assembly -- and some Democrats, bless their hearts -- is well documented and public. Phil Berger is on most of those lists, along with other Republican leaders in Raleigh.)