Sen. Richard Burr

Pretending to be a defender of Social Security:

He talked of changing Medicare and Medicaid and reforming Social Security "so that the solvency of Social Security guarantees every person in this room when they get 65, they're actually going to get what they were promised and not half of what that amount should have been."

Once again, what he says and what he does are two totally different things. Earlier this year, he voted to allow the Social Security retirement age to rise up to 69 or higher, making that statement above pure deception on his part. And not a damned soul in that room called him on it.

I can't resist sharing this. It's the Mayberry Solar Farm in Mt. Airy.

Pictured at the dedication are Sen. Richard Burr and Rep. Virginia Foxx. Nevermind that both vote in lockstep with the Republican anti-clean energy agenda.

Never mind that Richard Burr voted no on the tax incentives that encourage clean energy development, voted to bar EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, and introduced legislation to abolish the EPA (which employs more than one thousand North Carolinians).

Never mind that Virginia Foxx voted in lockstep with every House Republican effort in the last few months to kill off alternative energy and defang the EPA.

When it comes to a local solar farm, hey, let's cheerlead at the ribbon cutting!

And if you don't already know the difference between the two, you haven't been paying attention:

A bill that would earmark $6.9 billion dollars for disaster relief failed to get enough votes to move forward in the U.S. Senate Tuesday, with Republican North Carolina Senator Richard Burr voting against and Democratic Senator Kay Hagan voting in favor.

The crop losses from Irene are the worst many of our farmers have seen in decades, yet their Senator keeps whining about offsets:

Holding his own constituents hostage:

“I think we’ve got to offset everything; anything that’s not allocated has got to be offset these days. It shouldn’t delay it,” Burr told POLITICO. “There’s hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse that could be accessed like that.”

Aside from the fact that you're (once again) throwing people who depend on you under the bus, if it takes a fricking hurricane for you to focus on waste, fraud and abuse, then your own public "service" falls into that "waste" column. And we keep sending him back...

Why appropriate money when you can squeeze it out of families:

Burr’s decision to fund S. 277 by putting commissaries at risk has been roundly criticized by military associations, commissary patrons and the American Logistics Association, which represents suppliers doing business with base stores. American Logistics projects that, if passed as written, S. 277 would raise grocery prices an average of $4,000 a year for military families and kill 50,000 store jobs for family members.

Good Lord. This is not the first anti-veteran bill Burr has pushed, but it could easily be the worst.

And that wrongness is part of the reason for S&P's downgrade:

"Tonight's decision by S&P underscores my concerns throughout the duration of the recent debt debate - that we need to make meaningful cuts in spending, reform our entitlement programs, and simplify our tax code to lower rates if we have any hope of putting our nation back on the path to fiscal responsibility.

Why don't we see what Standard & Poor had to say about those "lower rates":

In recent days, longserving Democrat, James W. Crawford of Oxford in Granville County has attained a new and shocking level of notoriety as the ringleader of the infamous Party of Five collaborators who voted with the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. The poisonous fruit of this nefarious conspiracy will impose a disastrous budget featuring draconian cuts of $900 million to the University of North Carolina as well as slashing funds for Planned Parenthood and Medicaid in what many now see as a political pact with the devil.

While the Party rank and file is stunned to see senior Democrat Crawford openly conspiring with Republicans to topple the bright, shining edifice of public instruction built by progressive Democratic leaders in the mold of Terry Sanford and Jim Hunt, little is generally known about his political ideology and his personal background. Crawford's background is a fascinating case of political devilry.

By attacking the underfunded Small Business Adminsitration:

“Isn't this what Small Business Administration is supposed to do — to be there to facilitate the capital needs of people who stand the chance of being successful?” Burr said later. “This renews my belief we need to review all areas of federal government for effectiveness.”

And this renews my belief that the voters need to review your damn voting record:

Not unlike a 9 year-old driving a tractor:

“Regrettably,” Burr said, “many of these laws and regulations have become so burdensome and complex that they are choking our nation's economy, hampering job creation, and drowning our country in debt. I look forward to working with my committee colleagues to address these critical challenges which I believe are among the most important of our time."

Clueless. And dangerous. It was out-of-control deregulation that brought about our financial meltdown in the first place. and now our very own Senator is echoing that idiot Phil Gramm:

Folding it into the Department of Energy:

A bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C) would combine the DOE and the EPA into a new agency called the Department of Energy and Environment. The effort may also be an attempt by the GOP to rein in the EPA, which many Republicans accuse of pursuing too many costly environmental rules under the Obama administration.

Aside from the fact this would draw a huge amount of resources away from our environmental protectors (ergo massive staff reductions), the potential conflicts of interest are staggering. The DOE isn't just funded by taxpayers; money pours in from private industry, as well: