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.

No, not the kind you're thinking about.

In this case, we're talking about what's known as "the other white meat."

Seven of North Carolina’s members of Congress have asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect the pork industry from its economic troubles by buying $100 million worth of meat for the USDA’s federal food assistance programs.

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, they say the recession and the recent swine flu outbreak have hurt the industry. The lawmakers thanked Vilsack for his push earlier this year to call the swine flu virus H1N1 to disassociate it from pork products, but they said the impacts of the scare have hurt the industry.

The letter notes that USDA already has announced $30 million in purchases through the end of the fiscal year, reports Barb Barrett.

“We asking for additional help with the economic crisis the U.S. pork industry currently faces,” the letter reads. “Without your assistance, we are putting thousands of rural jobs and businesses at risk.”

The N.C. lawmakers are Democratic U.S. Reps. Bob Etheridge, Larry Kissell, Mike McIntyre, Brad Miller and G.K. Butterfield, along with Republican U.S. Reps. Howard Coble and Walter Jones. Fifty-five other lawmakers also signed the letter.

They want Vilsack to use $100 million to buy pork for federal food assistance programs, with an emphasis on sow meat to reduce breeding stock.

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Americans for Prosperity is targeting U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan over the stimulus bill.

The limited-government advocacy group is airing an ad on AM and FM talk radio stations in Wilmington, Greensboro and Raleigh arguing that the stimulus package in the Senate is full of "the same old wasteful spending."

"Six hundred million dollars to buy new cars for federal bureaucrats. Fifty million to fund art — that's right art," the narrator says. "Three hundred thirty five million for studying sexually transmitted diseases. One hundred fifty million for honeybee insurance."

The ad cites a Web site, NoStimulus.com, that Americans for Prosperity set up to oppose the bill. It urges listeners to go to the site to tell Hagan to vote against it.

Spokesman Dallas Woodhouse said the Web site has attracted 44,000 signatures so far, including several thousand in North Carolina.

Previously: Ad urges Sen. Richard Burr to support stimulus bill.

Full text of the ad after the jump.

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Four North Carolina Republicans have sworn off federal earmarks.

Sen. Richard Burr and Reps. Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx and Walter Jones agreed not to ask for specific spending projects in federal bills when contacted by the conservative Club for Growth. 

They are among six senators and 17 representatives who pledged to "swear off pork," in the words of the Club for Growth.

All four agreed to a similar pledge in 2008. 

Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, will be keeping a close eye on that stimulus package the Democrats are pushing in the upcoming lame-duck session of Congress, Barb Barrett reports.

"He wants to make sure the package doesn’t include pork projects for congressional constituencies, especially Democratic constituences,” said his spokesman, Chris Walker. "And that anything with a 'stimulus' label is actually stimulating the economy."

Democrats have talked of including government-funded infrastructure projects for programs such as roads and construction, as a way of creating jobs.

A new ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee attacks U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole on a number of votes.

What it says: The ad shows images of Dole and an Alaskan landscape, including a brown bear. Narrator: "Why is Elizabeth Dole ranked 93rd in effectiveness? She voted for millions in pork, including Alaska's bridge to nowhere. But for North Carolina? She voted with George Bush 92 percent. Against raising the minimum wage time after time. Against helping families struggling to keep their homes. For the largest cut ever in student loans. Elizabeth Dole, fighting for ... Alaska? Definitely out of touch with North Carolina. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising."

The background: The ad makes several claims about Dole's voting record.

BRIDGE TO NOWHERE: Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens requested an earmark in the 2006 budget for the proposed $398 million Gravina Island Bridge, nicknamed the "Bridge to Nowhere" by detractors because it serves an island with just 50 residents.

In October of 2005, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn proposed an amendment to the bill that would have shifted $75 million from the bridge and another project in Alaska to the rebuilding of a bridge destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

The amendment failed, 15-82, with Dole voting against it.

Congress later stripped the earmark, but gave the state of Alaska an equivalent amount of money for any use it considered appropriate.

MINIMUM WAGE: Starting in 2005, Senate Democrats attempted to raise the federal minimum wage.

In March, Sen. Ted Kennedy proposed raising it by $2.10 over the following 26 months. As a counterproposal, Republican Sen. Rick Santorum proposed raising it by $1.10 over 18 months while exempting more businesses.

Either would have been the first increase in the federal minimum wage since 1997.

The amendments both came on a bill overhauling bankruptcy regulations. Both proposals could have complicated efforts to pass the overhaul, since House leaders had said they would only consider the bill if the Senate did not add unrelated amendments.

The Kennedy amendment failed, 46-49, while the Santorum amendment failed, 38-61. Dole voted against the first amendment, but for the second.

In October, Senate Democrats unsuccessfully attempted to raise the minimum wage by $1.10 an hour over 18 months. Dole voted against that raise as well.

After Democrats gained control of the Senate in 2006, they pushed the minimum wage hike again. Dole voted for the first, which was never signed into law. The wage hike was later included in an emergency spending bill that Dole voted for as well.

ENERGY ASSISTANCE: The fine print on the section of the ad on struggling families cites a vote on home energy asistance.

In 2006, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine proposed spending an additional $1 billion in the 2007 budget for one-time assistance to people who need help paying their heating and cooling bills.

Dole voted against an amendment on the measure, which later passed by a voice vote.

Spokesman Dan McLagan said Dole objected to how the money would be spent.

"The vast majority of the package was aimed at cold-weather states," he said. "All this money was going to go to northern states for a winter that had been mild, versus southern states that had a hot summer."

In 2008, Dole successfully pushed another measure for more spending on the same energy assistance program. She received an award for her efforts from the National Fuel Funds Network, a nonprofit coalition of energy assistance providers.

CREDIT COUNSELING: In April, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray proposed spending another $100 million on foreclosure counseling this year.

At the time, Congress had already budgeted $180 million for credit counselors.

Murray argued that spending more to prevent homeowners from going into foreclosure was "a smart investment," although it would require suspending budget rules that require any new spending to be matched by an equal cut somewhere else.

Senate Republicans argued that they needed to investigate whether the money was being spent appropriately before budgeting more. If more was spent, they argued it should be done through the regular budget process, not an amendment.

The amendment failed 44-40, with Dole voting against it.

PREVIOUS CLAIMS: Washington-based news service Congressional Quarterly compiles yearly figures for how often senators vote with the stated position of the president. The 92 percent figure comes from an average of the yearly scores for Dole, though Congressional Quarterly researchers says that method is inaccurate. Based on its overall score through August, they say the correct figure for Dole is 88 percent. The effectiveness ranking comes from an annual study conducted by the data service Knowlegis.

Is it accurate? Some of the claims are true: Dole voted against a measure to strip funding for the "Bridge to Nowhere," her effectiveness ranking was 93rd, and she voted against more credit counseling for families facing foreclosure. Two other claims are missing context: She voted against raising the minimum wage and providing more energy assistance, though she later voted for both. In addition, the vote on energy assistance had little to do with foreclosure. The figure for her votes with President Bush is off by a few percentage points.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole voted against an attempt to take money from the "Bridge to Nowhere."

An earmark for the proposed $398 million Gravina Island Bridge was included in a 2006 Appropriations bill at the request of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. The bridge has been criticized as wasteful spending because it serves an island with just 50 residents.

On Oct. 20, 2005, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn proposed an amendment to the bill that would have shifted $75 million from the Gravina Island Bridge and another project to the rebuilding of the Interstate 10 twin span destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

The amendment failed, 15-82, with Dole voting against it.

Congress later stripped the specific earmark but gave the state of Alaska an equivalent amount of money for any use it considered appropriate. 

A recent ad by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee criticizes Dole for her vote.

"She voted for millions in pork, including Alaska's Bridge to Nowhere," a narrator says as Dole is shown in front of an image of a brown bear. "Elizabeth Dole, fighting for ... Alaska? Definitely out of touch with North Carolina."

A new ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee criticizes U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole over votes on pork spending.

The Republican Governors Association's first ad against Beverly Perdue accuses her of wanting to continue the "status quo" in Raleigh.

What the ad says:The ad shows two actors playing Raleigh insiders. They walk into the state Capitol to speak with an actress playing Perdue.

First insider: "We have to get Beverly Perdue to maintain that status quo."

Second insider: "How hard can that be?"

One of them holds a red "status quo" button — a take-off on an ad campaign for office supplies.

First insider: "Status quo Beverly Perdue!"

Second insider: "Bev, we have a new tax-increase plan!"

First insider: "Together, we've passed over $6 billion in new taxes."

Second insider: "The largest-growing tax burden in the country."

First insider: "Push the status quo button, Bev!"

The actress pushes the button and nods to other requests.

First insider: "Bev, time to raise the gas tax."

Second insider: "Just like we've done for almost 20 years."

First insider: "And no offshore drilling."

The actress pushes the button again.

First insider: "Bev, more pork-barrel spending."

Second insider: "Let's take it out of the slush fund you passed."

First insider: "Push the button, Bev!"

Narrator: "Tell Beverly Perdue North Carolina can't afford the status quo."

The background: The ad raises three issues — taxes, gasoline and government spending.

TAXES: The Republican Governors Association says the "$6 billion in new taxes" is the amount raised by new state taxes imposed from 2001-06. Almost half of that came from two temporary taxes that lawmakers and Gov. Mike Easley imposed because of a 2001 budget crisis: an extra half-penny sales tax and a new upper-income tax bracket. The rest came from more than 60 other tax changes.

Easley and lawmakers have also cut taxes since 2001. In the 1990s, when Perdue was a legislator and a lead budget writer, lawmakers and Gov. Jim Hunt cut or eliminated some taxes.

The RGA says the claim about the "largest-growing tax burden in the country" is based on an April 12, 2007, article from The Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C. The article says "North Carolina's tax burden rank has seen the largest increase of any state since 2000," jumping from the 36th highest state-local tax burden in 2000 to the 19th highest.

The article, though, is based on outmoded methodology. According to the foundation's revised data, North Carolina's tax burden rank was 20th — not 36th — in 2000. It has since fluctuated between 17th and 22nd. In 2008, it is again 20th.

Contacted Tuesday, a foundation spokesman apologized for the confusion and an economist there said the newer methodology is more accurate.

Perdue represented the New Bern area in the legislature from 1987 until 2001. She has since served as lieutenant governor, a position where she presides over the N.C. Senate. As lieutenant governor, Perdue can vote only in the case of a tie. So her role in tax changes since 2001 has been only procedural.

GASOLINE: North Carolina started taxing gasoline in 1921 at a penny a gallon. Lawmakers raised the tax over the decades, and in 1989 Democratic lawmakers and Republican Gov. Jim Martin pushed through an increase from about 16 cents a gallon to about 21 cents a gallon. Under the 1989 law, the tax fluctuates with the price of gas. It now stands at about 30 cents a gallon, the maximum under a 2006 law.

Perdue was a co-sponsor of the 1989 law. She has been largely silent in recent years while legislators debated a cap on the gas tax. She told The Charlotte Observer this year that she would support local-option taxes for transportation and consider other new revenue sources, such as a tax on miles driven.

On drilling off the North Carolina coast, Perdue says she wants to hear from scientists before taking a position. As recently as June, she had said she was "100 percent opposed" to the idea.

SPENDING: The terms "pork-barrel spending" and "slush fund" are generally associated with spending that meets any of several criteria: it does not follow a regular approval process, it is not transparent or it is not based on measurable criteria or need.

From 1995 through 2000, Perdue was a co-chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Though any spending must be approved by the full legislature and the governor, the position meant Perdue was involved in closed-door budget negotiations. There were at least two instances during this time when lawmakers, including Perdue, were accused of creating or using a "slush fund."

Before the 1996 fall election, legislative leaders and Hunt divided up $21 million from a "repairs and renovations" fund without specific approval from the full legislature. The money went to local projects around the state. The next year, lawmakers added another $39 million to the fund — a decision Perdue defended while promising more oversight.

"There will be a complete review," Perdue told the Greensboro News & Record. "There isn't a slush fund."

(The fund continues to this day. A legislative committee is charged with reviewing its spending.)

In March 1997, The Charlotte Observer reported on a $9 million annual transportation fund that lawmakers — not transportation experts were in charge of dividing up. Over a 26-month period, Perdue ranked second in allocations from the fund for local projects like road-paving. (The fund continues to this day.)

Is it accurate? The claims about taxes are inaccurate in two ways. Perdue has presided over the N.C. Senate since 2001, but she has rarely voted and has lacked the power to "pass" any tax changes. The support for the claim that North Carolina's tax burden is the country's "largest-growing" is outmoded.

The claim that there would be "no offshore drilling" under Perdue is a prediction that may or may not turn out to be accurate, as are the claims that Perdue would raise the gas tax and increase "pork-barrel spending."

— David Ingram

An ad for Robert Pittenger, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, attacks pork in state spending.