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RALEIGH — Rep. Mel Watt has been getting a lot of online grief lately for his work on a bill related to the Federal Reserve.

The Charlotte Democrat, who represents parts of Guilford County, sits on the House Financial Services Committee.

Last week, the committee passed a bill that would provide for auditing the Federal Reserve, a body that sets monetary policy for the country. Critics on the left and right say the Fed bears closer watching after failing to avert the problems that have led to the recession.

Watt favored a version of the bill that would allow for audits of the Fed’s balance sheet and lending, but not of its policy-making decisions.

An amendment he offered to do just that was rejected by the committee, but not before commentators online took aim at Watt, accusing him of carrying the banking industry’s water in exchange for political donations.

Watt did not return a call Monday seeking comment.

But a Reuters report quoted Watt as saying that the legislation passed by the committee could hamstring the Fed.

“Everybody would like to beat up on the Fed and call them the bad guy,” Reuters quoted Watt as saying. “(But) are we going to so substantially castrate the Fed so it cannot do what it was set up to do?”

The measure has yet to come to the House floor. After that, the bill would move  to the Senate where at least one of North Carolina’s senators said recently she’s unsure what kind of package she might favor.

“That’s one of the issues — with health care, climate change, the jobs, the recession — that I know we will be taking up more in the first of the year,” said Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat. “I am looking at different factors having to do with that and I have not come to a decision on that at this point, but I’m studying it.”

Healthy debate

Most government geeks know there was a big health care showdown in Washington over the weekend. But if you missed it, the Senate voted to proceed with debate over that chamber’s version of the health care overhaul bill.

Although it was a procedural vote, it was an important one that required all 60 Democrats to vote in favor of proceeding.

Debate over the bill is expected to eat up much of the Senate’s time for the rest of the year.

North Carolina’s two Senators cleaved to their party lines, with Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat, saying days before the vote that she would vote to proceed with debate, and Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, trashing the bill along with the rest of the GOP caucus.

“This 20 pounds is the size of many people’s turkey next week,” Burr said at a D.C. news conference, holding up a print out of the health care bill.  “That’s what most people in North Carolina think about the bill, too.”

In the run up to the debate, senators were getting pressure from all sides trying to influence their votes. Republicans and other conservative groups were putting the hammer and tongs to Hagan, hoping to win a vote from someone commonly referred to as a business-friendly conservative Democrat.

The Republican National Committee went so far as to launch a Web advertisement before the vote.

The ad features images of Sen. John Kerry delivering his “I voted for it before I voted against it” line from the 2004 campaign. It then goes on to accuse Hagan of plotting a similar flip-flop on the health care bill.

It claimed Hagan would vote to proceed with the bill but predicted she’ll vote against on passage.

However, if you consider her recent history, Hagan would be flip-flopping if she didn’t vote to proceed. That’s because when she had the opportunity to vote on a predecessor of the current health care bill in committee, she voted for it.

When asked about the ad, Hagan spokeswoman Stephanie Allen said, “As Senator Hagan has been very clear about her support of health care reform, it looks like the RNC’s attempts to read the tea leaves have failed again.”

The vote on H.R. 3590: The  Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, was 60-39.

Hagan voted to proceed with debate. Burr voted against.

Darned if they do ...

Speaking of the health care bill, a Democratic-leaning polling firm did a survey of voters to see what the repercussions  of health care debate might be on next year’s midterm elections.

Of the respondents, 46 percent said they’d vote for Democrats if the health care bill passed, while only 41 percent said they’d go for Republicans.

When the question was asked the other way, Democrats and Republicans tied 40-40 on the so-called generic ballot test.

“Clearly Democrats need to pass a health care bill if they want to do well at the polls next year,” said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling.

House votes

HR 3961: Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009. This is the so-called “doc fix.”

The measure averts cuts in payments to doctors that could have reduced fees paid on behalf of the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly by one fifth.

The big objections to the bill came over its cost.

Watt, of Charlotte, and fellow-Democrat Brad Miller of Raleigh, voted for the measure.

Republicans Howard Coble of Greensboro and Virginia Foxx of Banner Elk voted against it.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com