Burr Doesn't Get It

We're being sold a pack of lies from so-called conservatives and the left, folks. My friends and I met with Richard Burr's Healthcare LA on Tuesday and it wasn't pretty. We'd met with her back in March, but that meeting was more friendly. Like with our first meeting of the day with Hagan's people, we knew Burr was not on our side regarding the defunding of Obamacare.

Margaret, his LA, assured us that Burr was doing all he could to repeal and defund Obamacare. She said he was signed on to a few bills that would defund Obamacare, though at the moment, she could not recall any numbers or titles. She said he was opposed to the strategy being used by Senators Lee and Cruz. She was visibly frustrated during the entire meeting. She said, "We are doing everything we can, the Republicans are doing what they think is best..."  It was we are doing and we think this other strategy is best, we, we, we without a mention of WE THE PEOPLE. At one point, I said, "I've noticed you've been using a lot of "wes" and telling us that "we" are doing what "we" think is best, but you seem to have forgotten that you are supposed to do what WE the people want. We don;t have a top down government, we have a bottom up government." I explained how our NCGOP passed a resolution to defund Obamacare and I reminded her that the same resolution was passed at the RNC. Voting no means a vote against what the party wishes.

My friends engaged her and like all the anti-defund Obamacare folks, she hit the major talking points and ignored us when we gave her statistics, or facts. She continued to believe that defunding would lead to a government shutdown in spite of the fact I told her that we know that government will not shut down any essential services deemed essential by OMB. So Veterans services, the military, FBI and other federal law enforcement would continue to have services and operate normally. SS, Medicare, Medicaid and entitlement funding is NOT subject to annual appropriations.Regardless, the Graves Resolution CR doesn't shut government down.

She really sounded as if she and the senator have given up. She said, "At the end of the day, President Obama is still president so nothing will get through." My friend responded, "At the end of the day, Burr is still our senator." Do we really not fight simply because Barack Obama is President and/or because we do not have a majority in the Senate!? Really? When do Democrats every give up? Have you ever known them to give up when they are the minority? 

I thought it was interesting that Tuesday afternoon, Margaret said we'd taken Burr's "dumbest idea ever" quote out of context and then the next day, his interview with HuffPo comes out saying, "Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told The Huffington Post that he still thinks demanding that President Barack Obama's health care law be defunded in order to avoid a government shutdown is a "dumb idea," as he deemed it last July."

The article went further. '"I said it was the dumbest idea I'd ever heard of," Burr said. "I still think it's a dumb idea, because you can't defund Obamacare." The North Carolina Republican added that he hadn't determined how he'd vote on a continuing resolution, because it wasn't clear what type of bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to bring to the floor. But a source close to Burr said he opposes a strategy that would tie an effort to defund the health care law to the government funding measure."

She got up in a huff at one point and the meeting was suddenly over. She told my friends as we were leaving that she was tired of Republicans fighting with one another. I guess she forgot that it was her boss who came out in public and took swipes at Senators Cruz and Lee. He should have spoken to them privately and brought them his own idea.