How much profit did Blue Cross make?

Lew Borman, a spokesman for Blue Cross Blue Shield, says a recent radio ad from the State Employees Association of North Carolina gets the figure wrong. 

The ad claims that Blue Cross made $180 million running the State Health Plan.

Borman said that figure is "totally incorrect."

He said the profit margin on the administrative-services-only contract is .625 percent, or $478,000 last year.

Borman called the ad "a gross mischaracterization" of Blue Cross' role and profits and said it took a "cheap shot" at the company's executives.

"They miss the point," he wrote in an e-mail to Dome. "The real issue is the (State Health Plan's) inability to forecast and pay the growing medical costs."

The Woodhouse brothers are taking each other to the woodshed.

The two Raleigh natives are fighting directly over the North Carolina airwaves about the economic stimulus package being discussed in Congress.

Dallas Woodhouse, spokesman for the limited-government group Americans for Prosperity, is leading a radio campaign urging Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan to vote against the bill.

Brad Woodhouse, president of the liberal advocacy group Americans United for Change, is running a radio campaign urging Republican Sen. Richard Burr to vote for it.

The brothers, who both graduated from Broughton High, started out in the middle of the political spectrum. After working for U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, Brad worked his way up the Democratic ladder in Washington, while Dallas went from being a TV reporter to a conservative advocate.

This is the first time they've directly campaigned against each other, but not the first time they've disagreed over politics.

"He tells me that I'm out to destroy America and stop progress," said Dallas, "and I tell him he's trying to tax us into oblivion and steal all our prosperity."