President Barack Obama referenced Sen. Richard Burr’s health plan about 10 minutes into his speech tonight, though without mentioning it by name.

After talking of how some on the left are pushing for a single-payer system, Obama said: “On the right, there are those who argue that we should end the employer-based system and leave individuals to buy health insurance on their own.”

Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican who has a bill with Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, has suggested offering such tax credits to families, reports Barb Barrett.

Those tax credits would allow families to buy their own health insurance on the open market, which Burr says protects the free market and gives families more choice. Many observers say it could, however, effectively end the employer-based health insurance system.

Obama followed that reference, though, by saying that either the single-payer system or a new system based on tax credits “would represent a radical shift that would disrupt the health care most people currently have.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr plugged a Republican alternative health care insurance plan today, saying Democratic plans before Congress were too large and government-oriented.

The Winston-Salem Republican pushed the Patients Choice Act, which relies on refundable tax credits, state health insurance exchanges and an emphasis on prevention. But it keeps in place the system of private insurrors and does not give the public the option of purchasing insurance from a government-backed plan.

"You don't need to stimulate competition," Burr told about 30 people at the Crabtree Rotary Club. "What you need is to unleash the markets."

Read more after the jump.

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UNPOPULAR POLS: Gov. Beverly Perdue's approval rating has slipped to a new low: 30 percent in one poll. Her solution: barnstorm the state calling for higher taxes for everyone. The good news for her is that she'd have a long way to fall before matching the unpopularity of former Gov. Mike Easley, who is apparently the target of a wide-ranging federal investigation. Meanwhile, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards declared to the Washington Post this week that he isn't paying attention to his reputation. We noticed.

COMMANDMENT 11: Now that the candidates to lead the state Republican party are finished beating the stuffing out of each other, the new chairman, Tom Fetzer, turned his attention to the real enemy — Democrats. Fetzer launched a broadside against a fundraising reception for Democratic lawmakers calling the event inappropriate. Democrats mostly ignored the attack, but it probably felt good for the GOP to go after the other guys for a change.

BUDGET: After a lengthy, public and at times painful budget debate in the House last week, the actual budget can now be written by the select few in the conference committee. Big changes, particularly to the House's proposed taxes, are in store.

IN OTHER NEWS: former state Rep. Cary Allred, wearing his pajamas, was stopped for reckless driving with the smell of alcohol on his breath six days after he quit the legislature. The state Revenue Department held up tax refunds for big families because it wants proof. Newly graduated teachers and lawyers are both having a hard time finding jobs.

Sen. Tom Coburn wonders why the federal stimulus package is paying for a $300,000 parking lot in the Guilford County town of Summerfield.

The Summerfield parking lot makes the Oklahoma Republican’s list of 100 questionable projects being financed by the stimulus package passed by Congress earlier this year, Rob Christensen reports.

The report, released Tuesday, notes that the federal government is picking up the tab for a project that was already  in the town’s budget.

"The way I looked at it is it didn’t really matter how you felt about the stimulus package, which is a reality," the report quotes Town Manager Michael Brandt. "I thought we might as well seek some benefit...If I don’t go for it, somebody else will."

Also on Coburn’s list was the town of Washington N.C. which is using $40,234 grant to hire a project-funding manager whose job is to get more stimulus money.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr will roll out his health care idea this morning.

The Winston-Salem Republican will join fellow Sen. Tom Coburn and Reps. Paul Ryan and Devin Nunes to introduce a comprehensive health care bill at 11 a.m.

With Democratic majorities in both chambers considering major health care reform this year, the Burr proposal will be a GOP counterproposal.

Their plan would tax health care benefits to fund tax credits for people buying their own insurance.

The press conference will be carried live on Fox News.

Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr told Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson today that the government took a wrong turn in deciding that hundreds of billions in federal bailout money won't be used to buy troubled bank assets.

Burr, along with two other Republican senators, wrote in response to Paulson's announcement yesterday that the agency will look to help non-bank entities that offer credit card loans, student loans and car loans, Barb Barrett reports.

"We are concerned that the program has been fundamentally changed from its original intent," the senators wrote about the bailout, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

The group also worried that more changes could hurt oversight designed to protect taxpayers.

"Congress never intended for the TARP to be a blank check that could be spent with unlimited discretion," the senators wrote.

The letter was signed by Burr, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and David Vitter of Louisiana.

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."

Elizabeth Dole may have taken Jesse Helms' seat, but Richard Burr took his place.

According to rankings by a University of California at San Diego professor, Burr has occupied the same place in the political spectrum since joining the Senate in 2005.

Developed by political scientist Keith Poole, the rankings are based on an analysis of every roll call vote in the Senate since 1937, a method that he says better captures the ideological consistency of Congressional lawmakers than cherry-picking certain issues.

In the 2005-2006 and 2007-2008 sessions, Burr was ranked the sixth most conservative senator. He is currently ranked as less conservative than only Sens. John Ensign of Nevada, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

Helms was ranked the sixth most conservative senator in the 2001-2002 session.

Dole, who took Helms' seat in 2003, has become more conservative during her tenure. She was ranked the 30th most conservative senator in the 2003-2004 session, the 27th most conservative in the 2005-2006 session and the 16th most conservative in the 2007-2008 session.

Sen. John Edwards was the 38th most liberal senator in the 2001-2002 session and the 20th most liberal senator in the 2003-2004 session.

Richard Burr for vice president?

Burr, the U.S. senator from Winston-Salem, is starting to get some attention as it looks increasingly like Arizona Sen. John McCain will be the GOP nominee for president. That has led to plenty of speculation about where McCain might turn for a running mate.

Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard puts Burr high on his list:

Any number of prominent social conservatives have been suggested, including Republican senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Sam Brownback of Kansas. I suspect a better possibility is Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, a rising star among Republicans.

The conservative, pro-economic growth group Club for Growth recently rated Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, one of three senators tops in supporting anti-pork amendments in Congress, Barb Barrett reports.

The other two senators, Republicans Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, also earned 100 percent ratings. DeMint and Coburn were the sponsors of the 15 anti-pork amendments judged by the Club for Growth and were declared “taxpayer heroes.”

Another Republican, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, had a 100 percent rating but attended just two of the amendment votes.

The amendments targeted funding that would have sent money to, among other projects, a museum in New York, spinach growers, beach nourishment in San Diego, a baseball field in Montana and a wetlands project in Louisiana, the group said.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Salisbury Republican, earned a 62 percent rating.