Meaningless gestures shouldn’t be compensated either, but…

Dean Heller is an idiot. I just received this via email.

Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) has introduced the “No Budget, No Pay Act,” a bill that requires Members of Congress to pass a budget in order to receive their salary. 

“Clearly, Washington is broken. It’s been more than 800 days since Congress executed one of its most basic responsibilities, passing a budget. We wouldn’t be debating government spending today if Congress had done its job when it was supposed to.  Nevadans work hard for their paychecks. For Congress to think they are held to a different standard than the rest of America is insulting to taxpayers. If Congress doesn’t do its job, then Members shouldn’t get paid,” Senator Heller said.

Heller’s bill requires Members of Congress to pass a concurrent budget resolution by the beginning of any fiscal year.  Retroactive pay for any period of time covered by this provision of law would be prohibited. 

Prior to introducing this as a stand-alone bill, Heller introduced this legislation in the Senate as an amendment to S. 1323. 

Hey, what’s not to like? No workie, no payee.  Right? Sounds good, doesn’t it?  Ah, red meat for the masses.

 

To begin with, Heller needs brush up on his U.S. Constitution. The 27th amendment is as follows:

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

Further, while a budget hasn’t been passed, I offer that the Congress is indeed still ”working.” They are still holding hearings and committee meetings, holding votes, meeting with constituents, etc, etc, etc. The budget isn’t the only thing Congress does.  This isn’t to say that I’m satisfied with their job performance, but there is an answer to that come November 2012.

Finally, does Dean Heller really think that the millionaires in Congress are going to miss their base Congressional pay? Really?

I have a better idea for Senator Heller. How’s about he introduce a constitutional amendment requiring term limits for U.S. Representatives and Senators? And while he’s at it, introduce a bill requiring public financing of all federal elections. That might actually do some good. 

Forget the grandstanding, Senator.

Not buying it

He’s worried about the Ethics Committee? Puhleeze. What a bunch of horseshit.

Methinks the GOP got a good look at some polling numbers for Dean Heller after his “I wanna kill Medicare” vote  and thought they’d give him a leg up.

Dead Heat in Nevada

Real Clear Politics

I’ll be interested to see what the numbers are now that the conventions are done. Last Nevada poll in this comparison was a CNN poll 8/24-26 showing Obama ahead by 5. That was during the Democratic National Convention.

On another note, Jill Derby’s campaign is ramping up their GOTV. More to come in the days ahead. My friend Dee has an interesting post at Blue Sage Views on how “nice” Dean Heller was at a recent event. Hmm. That’s interesting. As I noted in the comments: I wonder if Dean’s “niceness,” in stark contrast to his complete asshole-ishness in 2006, is indicative of a deep and abiding fear that his ass is grass this time around?

Jill at the 4th of July parade in Fernley (thanks, John!)

Me, Jill and Theresa (before “the incident“)

Heller Telephone Town Hall :The Straight Skinny

From my pal Dee in Winnemucca. Written at my request after she sent me a quick email telling me that she had listened in on one of Dean Heller’s telephone town halls. The girl’s got more stomach than I do.

Through a strange turn of coincidences, I was invited Thursday night to be on Congressman Dean Heller’s Town Hall telephone conference for rural voters. It was … enlightening, to say the least.

I had several favorite moments. One was the concern Heller expressed for the disenfranchisement of veterans. It seems, according to Mr. Heller, the Nevada Caucus unfairly excluded veterans who were overseas fighting for their country and therefore did not get to vote. I’ll just let that one speak for itself. Another favorite moment was when a self-identified conservative from Winnemucca asked why her party always has to “bow-down” to the liberals. I just laughed out loud. I think the world would be a better place if there was a lot more of that than there is.

Despite the fact voters at-large pay for the town hall teleconferencing, the meeting quickly turned to liberal-bashing, with specific reference to environmentalists. According to Heller, environmentalists want to shut down the public lands, prevent hunting/4-wheeling, and end the time-honored tradition of folks camping with their kids. Here’s a direct quote from Heller’s environmental speech, “At the end of the day they want to take your guns away.”

Wow. I’ve been an environmentalist for years and I didn’t know that. I must have missed a memo. Here all along I thought it was about conservation and using limited resources wisely.

It was concerning environmentalism that I had my second-favorite moment of the evening. A caller from Battle Mountain complained to Heller about not being able to eat the fish he catches because of the mercury content. Mr. Heller was sympathetic. He waxed poetic about his days as a boy when he would ride his bike to the Carson River, fish, and then eat what he caught. Without a hint of irony, Mr. Heller said, “My children can’t do that.” And then he went further and blamed the mercury content in the water on mining. Not to worry, though, because the problem can be fixed with money from the Superfund (that Dean Heller – what a joker!). In the end, Heller said the problem with mercury is a “state issue”, but the “state” can come to the “federal government” for help. By “help” he means “sympathy” and not “funding” because there’s no money left for those kinds of problems.

Here’s some other things you should probably know: Heller hates San Francisco liberals (who, to be fair, aren’t all that fond of him, either), supports making Bush’s tax cuts permanent in order to help the middle class (I assume that’s a conservative joke I don’t get), is for more coal-fired power plants and off-shore drilling, supports building a big-‘ole fence between ‘us’ and ‘them’, opposes amnesty for ‘them’, and also opposes repeat sex offenders. Oh, and he also feels very strongly that English should be the official language of America. I think that’s great. Of course, now we’re all gonna have learn it.

The more interesting aspect of the phone call was a poll Heller was conducting concerning the Berkley City Council. The BCC, as you probably know if you’re a regular watcher of FOX News (insert gagging noise), recently voted 6-3 to have a Marine recruiting station moved out of the city. This action followed two years of almost constant anti-war demonstrations in front of the building, which resulted in a negative impact on local businesses. In retaliation for their vote, Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced legislation that would cut off all federal funding to the City of Berkley. Congressman Heller supports the legislation and wants to know how you feel. Before you give him a big thumbs-up, you should know the federal funding is limited to UC Berkley, money for school lunches so poor kids can eat, and public safety. Education, nutrition, and ambulances. Very nice. That’ll show those liberals.

Buried in all this hatred and misunderstanding was an important nugget of good information. Heller noted he’s supporting HR 315, which would allow rural veterans to get their health care (when possible) at local clinics instead of driving hundreds of miles to get to the VA Hospital. In case you don’t know, the current compensation for vets who have to travel for health care is 11 cents a mile with a $6 deductible (this amount was set in 1978 by then President Jimmy Carter). By the bye, props to Heller’s helpful and polite staff for promptly calling me back with accurate information on this bill. If you support this bill, and I assume you do, let your representatives know.

Dee Holzel
The Winne-muckraker

A bird’s eye view of Dean Heller’s "Town Hall"

On Monday night my phone rang, and an automated message from Dean Heller invited me to immediately join a teleconference “Town Hall.” Though I chose not to, a friend of mine did participate and sent me this email.

Junior Congressman Dean Heller took his show on the road last night by staging a “town hall meeting” over the phone with what he felt were his constituents.

My phone rang and I chose to enter the on-line foray. Every 15 minutes, during the session, Dean would interject with EST and that he was calling from his Washington, D.C. office. The only thing out of the dialogue was that it could be along the Potomac River.

The highlight of the conversations I tuned in to including participants from Storey, Lyon and Churchill counties, as he continued to reiterate, was the one I heard from my favorite pair of U.S. Navy veterans residing in Fernley.

M & D F—– are a dedicated couple with whom I became acquainted, volunteering at the Nevada Veteran Cemetery in Fernley.

A dedication to their personal philosophies of life, and a Democratic stance rang out loud and clear during this telephonic episode. We were all told to press “#” and wait until it was our turn to ask a question.

So, when it was the F—– family turn to be put on line D mustered up all the strength that a veteran on oxygen, and a true Democrat would, proceeded to open the conversation with the Congressman: “First of all, I didn’t’t vote for you”.

I thought I would fall over in my chair and D continued to calmly express his opinion … until Dean cut him off and went to the next person queued up to speak with the illustrious Nevada leader.

If there were a Democratic … or for that matter a voice of reason academy award … I would give it to Don who stood steadfast to his principals [sic] and that of his wife … when faced with the challenge.

Also, during the event, participants were given the opportunity to express their opinion about the newly proposed immigration legislation by pressing a button on their telephones. When the polled results were in, there was only one vote for the present proposal … as sketchy as it may be at this moment.

Obviously, my vote was the only one that stood out in my mind.

In a follow up email with my friend asking permission to post this on the blog, she also informed me:

Also, one of the “callers” was speaking to boycotting gas stations. Heller was enthusiastic (maybe tired…but who contributed to his campaign?).
Then, the caller and Heller narrowed it down to Seven Eleven convenience stores served by CITGO.

Today, I learned that has all changed and the CITGO signs removed? The source of their oil….so the caller contended was Venezuela. Yeah, said Heller we don’t want to deal with Communists. It sounded like we were back in the black/red lists of the 1950s…which I remember from having been raised in the backyard of Hollywood, California.

Too bad Dean Heller either didn’t know, or didn’t want to spoil the moment, by pointing out that 7-Eleven had dropped Citgo months ago. Hell, even Faux News reported it. But let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good scapegoating!

Around the Internets

DRAT! I was working on a Better Know a Candidate post on Energy and I deleted it before posting. I’ll have it to you in a day or two. In the meantime…

• So, how come these drug kingpins aren’t going to jail? Oh, that’s right, this drug is “legal” and therefore only those who “abuse” it are criminals, not the ones who push it.
• Dean Heller is full-on with the talking points in this Ely Times article
• Retail isn’t looking good. Even Wal-Mart is tanking. But, but, but…I thought the economy was booming!
• I’m confused. Wasn’t Dr. Manning supposed to start last February at the Lahontan Dental Clinic in Silver Springs? This article says he is in negotiations to partner with a Dr. Nelson.

I thought he was supposed to represent us

Rubberstamp Representative Dean Heller returns to D.C. after getting an earful from his constituents.

Heller returns to Washington this week after hearing deep opposition to the war from constituents in Nevada during spring recess. He said he heard similar sentiments in private conversations, in grocery stores and in homes from “some of my friends, neighbors, colleagues.”

Heller came away believing that two of every three Nevadans oppose the war – on par with national polls.

So, that means he’s going to help end the war, right? Um. No.

But Heller said “at the end of the summer – six to nine months – I’ll have to reassess my position.”

Oh. I see. Since January of this year, we have lost an average of three American soldiers a day in Iraq (Iraq Coalition Casualties). This month we are averaging four American deaths a day. Basic math says that in six months anywhere from 480 to 720 more American lives will be snuffed out. In nine months? 720 to 1080 more deaths.

All this death and THEN Dean Heller will start to reassess his position? How does he sleep at night?