Dean Heller Conference Call

Once a month, Congressman Heller holds a conference call that I usually ignore, just because I figure that most of the people who bother to participate are Republicans and the conversation would be of no interest to me. I think Heller deserves praise for taking the time to communicate in an almost one-on-one manner with his constituents. Tonight, I had the time and inclination to participate, and thought–what the hell! Let me see how Heller interacts with his constituents.

For the most part, the questions fell into three camps; immigration, security/terrorism, and health care/education. I know, I know–you’re shocked aren’t you? There was the predictable paranoia over the so-called Mexico-Canada super highway and a few strange moments on anchor babies (were they talking about Michelle Malkin I wonder?). Other questioners wondered why we aren’t bombing Afghanistan more often and why illegal immigrants are getting Medicare (they don’t legally by the way). Oh, I almost forgot about the poll–there was also a poll on whether Washoe County voters supported a 50 cent gas tax to encourage less driving and the purchase of more fuel efficient cars.

The reason I tuned in was to see if anyone would ask Heller about why he voted not to authorize the very successful Child Healthcare Insurance Program (SCHIP). Heller was very proud to announce that he is one of the “sweet sixteen,” a group of conservative congressmen who have voted “no” on every “pork” project, and he was especially proud that he voted against SCHIP, so proud in fact, that he brought it up himself. Lucky for him, the time for the conference call ran out before I was able to drill him more about his SHIP and the very Republican sounding Small Business Investment Expansion Act (thanks DB). The last participant of the evening was a young woman preparing to become a professional educator who asked Heller what he would do about Nevada’s shameful position as one of the poorest performing states in K-12 education. Heller’s answer, and I’m not kidding here, was to say that parents need sit with their children while they’re doing their home work rather than letting them play Nintendo. He of course also paid lip service to hiring and compensating quality teachers who “perform” well (code word for NCLB support). He then pointed to Utah and Idaho, the two most homogeneous states in the union in terms of ethnicity and religious persuasion as states that have successful K-12 programs for a comparable amount of money they spend per child. Well, there you go. That solves everything. We should all move to Utah and Idaho and throw out the video games if we want our children to receive a top-notch education.

Similar Posts:

• Heller Hates Sunshine, Too
• Gibbons’ State Of The State Address
• Endorsement #7.1: CD2 — Why we’re not endorsing Heller

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