U.S. Sen. Richard Burr said on the Senate floor this morning that health reform should empower Americans to make healthier choices.

In a conversation ahead of a key Senate vote Saturday about health reform, Burr criticized the bill put forward by Democrats, reports Barb Barrett. He said it gives Americans a public option that allows patients “to be insured and be managed and be run by the federal government.”

“In North Carolina, it’s been overwhelmingly rejected by the population,” said Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican.

An Elon University poll released this month found that three of four North Carolina residents favor health reform, and 54 percent support a public option.

Republican Sen. Richard Burr, long a critic of Democratic efforts to craft a health care overhaul, says he can not support the new Senate proposal.

Burr said the bill "is yet another attempt by Washington Democrats to take over our nation's health care system," Rob Christensen reports. He said it would cut Medicare benefits for seniors, increase taxes on small businesses, increase federal spending, and put "government bureaucrats between patients and their doctors."

He said the real cost of the bill over 10 years would be $2.5 trillion.

"This is not the kind of health reform I can support," Burr said said in statement. "It is certainly not the kind of health reform that the American people want. I oppose the bill, and I will work to see it does not become law. I agree we need health care reform, but this bill is not the answer."

UPDATE: Dollar amount corrected.

U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler was one of three dozen lawmakers who had been persuaded by lobbyists for a drug company to read the lobbyists' talking points into the Congressional Record.

A spokesman for Shuler acknowledged the language was provided by lobbyists for a subsidiary of Swiss drug maker Roche, the Asheville Citizen-Times reports.

Shuler's statement supported language in the House health care reform bill that would give biotechnology firms 12 years of exclusive rights to new biologic drugs they develop and would promote developing generic versions of the treatments. Biologic drugs are complex medicines made using living organisms.

Doug Abrahms, spokesman for Shuler, said the Waynesville Democrat "received and relied on" the statement provided by Genentech lobbyists. He said Shuler has long supported the biotechnology industry, which has a strong presence in North Carolina."

Abrahms declined to comment on whether it's proper to use language provided by an advocate. Some critics said using statements provided by lobbyists exemplifies the too-cozy relationship between corporate interests and members of Congress.

VOTE HAUNTS: Nearly two weeks after U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell bucked his party and voted against health care legislation, Democrats in his district are seething. The talk is that Kissell may face a serious primary challenge. (Charlotte Observer)

PORTRAIT PLEASES: Rene Dickerson was nervous as he prepared to unveil his portrait of the late U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. The cloth over the painting dropped, and the room gasped. The crowd broke into long applause. (N&O)

RESERVES AMPLE: North Carolina state government has at least $620 million at its disposal so far to close any budget hole this fiscal year, the state's budget director says. So far, revenue is down $95 million, a fraction of the multi-billion dollar shortfall faced last year. (AP)

Lots of people seem to think U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan will eventually vote "yes" on the health care reform bill moving through the Senate.

In an admittedly unscientific measure, Congress.org (which you may recognize as the new home of our former colleague Ryan Teague Beckwith) asked readers to pick how all 100 senators will vote on health care reform.

The idea, as RTB explains it, is to try to use group wisdom to identify the true swing votes and the people most deserving of letters, phone calls and lobbying efforts by both sides of the debate.

By Wednesday, 85 percent of the 74 people who had voted thought Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, would vote "yes." By contrast, 98 percent had Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, as voting against the bill.

Hagan has said she supports many of the proposals in the bill, but has remained vague on key points. The uncertainty has attracted a lot of attention from special interests.

So far group wisdom has identified only Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe as truly on the fence.

NAACP President William J. Barber led a delegation to U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan's Washington office today.

Barber was part of a lobbying effort by the NAACP, which says that 880,000 African-Americans have died over the last 10 years because of a lack of health insurance, Rob Christensen reports.

"This cause is one of the most important moral and civil rights issues of our day," Barber said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a coalition of groups supporting health care legislation is holding phone bank training sessions tonight in Asheville, Charlotte, the Triangle, and Wilimington to train people to call Hagan.

Planned Parenthood is planning to run phone banks every Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from their offices.

On Wednesday, the Health Care Action Now Coalition will hold a news conference outside of Hagan's Greensboro office on Wednesday to highlight the need for a public option in the health care legislation.

With the Senate expected to take up a health care bill soon, Hagan has been the subject of a major lobbying effort. She supports in general Democratic proposals for health care, but has given herself wiggle room on some of the details.

RIGHT RALLY: Conservatives rallied at the state capitol over the weekend to protest federal health care legislation. (N&O)

WILEY OUT: Rep. Laura Wiley, a High Point Republican, said she won't run for reelection. (News & Record)

PROSECUTOR PROBE: The SBI is investigating undisclosed issues involving Joel Brewer, district attorney for Person and Caswell County. (Times-News)

In last weekend’s House health reform vote, three of North Carolina’s conservative Democrats opposed the bill, despite an anti-abortion amendment designed to curry favor among Democrats who oppose abortion rights.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan declined Tuesday to say how she would have voted on the House bill, Barb Barrett reports.

"Our bill is going to be quite different from that bill," said Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat. "I would rather support what’s coming out of the Senate and see what we can get from a compromise position."

The House Democrats who voted against the bill were Reps. Heath Shuler of Waynesville, Mike McIntyre of Lumberton and Larry Kissell of Biscoe.

But Hagan does not favor the anti-abortion amendment, which would have restricted health insurance companies' ability to fund abortions if they compete for federal subsidies. Women seeking coverage would have to purchase their own insurance riders.

Hagan espoused the position that other moderate Democrats have favored, which is that health reform ought to keep the status quo regulations, which now prohibit federal funding of abortion.

"My preference would be not to change anything from the standpoint of the way we currently handle any sort of federal regulation," Hagan said Tuesday. "We don’t need to make any other changes."

U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry says a Democratic colleague is seeking retribution against a group of Catholic bishops.

McHenry, a Cherryville Republican who is Catholic, posted a comment on Twitter about U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, a Democrat from California who suggested that the IRS investigate an organization of Catholic bishops over their political involvement in an amendment meant to prohibit government funds paying for abortions, The Hill reports.

Woolsey wrote in an op-ed piece in Politico that the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops was stepping over the line in pushing for an amendment to health care legislation and may need to have its tax-exempt status examined.

That led to this comment from McHenry on his Twitter feed.

The nerve of some citizens to petition their government. In Woolsey-land, free speech is cause for retribution.

ON SALE NOW: A $20 donation to a Goldsboro middle school will get a student 20 test points — 10 extra points on two tests of the student's choosing. That could raise a B to an A, or a failing grade to a D. The fundraiser has troubled state school official and some parents. (N&O)

DETAILS NEEDED: U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, who represents a key vote on whether the Democratic health care reform bill moves ahead, said she wants to see details of a bill before she'll commit. Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, said that she remains firm on three main points of health reform: that health coverage be affordable and accessible, that a reform bill not increase the federal deficit and that insurance companies are barred from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. (N&O)

NO SHERIFF TAYLOR: Lincoln County has asked a judge to remove its sheriff, who has been indicted on felony charges related to covering up a fixed drunken driving investigation. (Charlotte Observer)