By SEAN MUSSENDEN
Media General News Service

WASHINGTON-Sen. Richard Burr, R-Winston-Salem, delivered the Republican weekly radio address on Saturday and used the moment in the spotlight to criticize the ballooning federal deficit.

“Washington is in a state of denial. Our spending habits haven’t gotten better, they’ve only gotten worse,” he said.

President Obama said this week that he expected the deficit to hit $1.75 trillion this year and $1.2 trillion next year.

“It’s long past time to show restraint and to make the tough choices that will help put our fiscal house in order,” Burr said.

IRAQ PULLOUT
Members of the North Carolina congressional delegation were on hand to watch President Barack Obama announce his Iraq withdrawal timetable Friday at Camp Lejeune.

But it was the absence of one lawmaker that was particularly noteworthy.

Rep. Walter Jones, R-Farmville, represents a district that includes the storied Marine base Obama visited.

Because of a scheduling conflict, Jones was driving home from Washington while Obama was laying out plans to remove all combat troops from Iraq by August 2010.

Though Jones initially voted to authorize President Bush to invade Iraq, he has come to deeply regret his vote.

He has become perhaps the most vocal Republican critic of the war and is sometimes moved to tears when discussing his vote with reporters and the public.

The walls of his office are covered with pictures of men and women who have died in Iraq since 2003. He blames the Bush administration for manipulating intelligence suggesting Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, but he also says he should have done a better job reviewing available intelligence himself.

Jones said this week that he was pleased Obama had set a timetable.

“I wish President Bush had said that about four years ago,” he said.

SHULER SPENDING
Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, solidified his reputation as one of the most fiscally conservative Democrats in the House by twice voting against the $787 billion stimulus package, one of only a handful of Democrats to do so.

He said many of the spending provisions were wasteful and would do nothing to jump start the economy.
But when it came time to vote this week on another multi-billion-dollar expenditure – the $410 billion budget for the rest of 2009 – Shuler backed it.

Republicans had criticized the measure as stuffed with wasteful earmarks and urged Obama to veto it after it passes the Senate. They expressed concern about the overall level of spending at a time of record deficits.
Shuler said he voted for it because it contained “investments…critical to the future of both our nation and our local communities.”

MCHENRY CENSUS
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-Cherryville, kept up pressure on the Obama administration over the 2010 Census this week after the president nominated former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as Commerce Secretary.

Obama had chosen Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., for the post. But Gregg decided to step aside after the White House indicated it – not the Commerce Department – would directly oversee the 2010 census.

Before Gregg dropped out, McHenry, the top Republican on a subcommittee that oversees the census, helped flame the dispute by publicly questioning the White House’s decision.

And last week, he sent a letter to Locke asking questions McHenry hopes will come up at Locke’s confirmation hearing in the Senate.

“Do you intend to comply with the partisan ambitions of the President or to fulfill your constitutional obligation as Secretary of Commerce and oversee a fair and accurate 2010 Decennial Census?” McHenry wrote.

Sean Mussenden can be reached at smussenden@mediageneral.com or 202-662-7668.