Congressman Shuler then asked for suggestions. Suggestions given were: improvements to the exchange system, tort reform, and looking to the free market for the solution to the current health care mess.

Well, there’s one Blue Dog out of the Pelosi-Obama orbit, if this report from Asheville is accurate (emphasis added):

Congressman Shuler, of course, does not agree with everything we had to say, but there was much in our discussion that we did agree upon. In my opinion, he seem to agree that this plan is too expensive. He seemed to agree that the burden on small business owners was unacceptable. He seemed to agree that the exchange system needed much improvement.

Before we closed the meeting, Congressman Shuler told us he will vote no on HR3200.

He was very gracious and he spent well over an hour chatting with us when he had originally planned to only give us about a half and hour.

We ended our time by telling him we would relay the news that he is not “in hiding” if he will tell his colleagues in Washington that we are not a pitchfork wielding “angry mob.”