First, the good news: Senator Jim Bunning finally stopped his blockade and allowed a vote on short term extenders for unemployment benefits, COBRA, flood insurance, highway funding and small business loans.

The bad news is that Senator Richard Burr voted against the extensions anyway.

The bill still passed, 78-19, but the vote leaves us shaking our heads, wondering why Richard Burr chose to cast a vote that hurt hundreds of thousands of struggling North Carolinian families.