What's Already on the Table

Clearly, there was plenty of action and plenty of heated conversation last night at Rep. Joe Heck's Green Valley High School town hall. The constituents who attended had plenty of questions on a number of issues.

And yes, a(nother) familiar issue came to the forefront at Green Valley High School. It's the same one that Rep. Heck said he supported one year ago. And it's the same one he claimed he was working on last August. Yet for all his talk on expanding background checks for gun purchases, he's yet to produce any meaningful action. (Sound familiar yet?)

That's why NV-03 constituent Sheila Shinno put him on the spot last night. She asked Rep. Heck why he doesn't support the bipartisan backed HR 1565 while claiming he wants to expand background checks.



Just as he did at the August town hall in Summerlin, Rep. Heck claimed he has problems with certain provisions of HR 1565. He also claimed he talked with the bill's original sponsors about a specific proposal regarding a "web portal", just as he did in August. But this time, another constituent took issue with Heck's claims.

NV-03 constituent & super activist Teresa Crawford did her homework last August when Rep. Heck talked about his objections to HR 1565. She specifically looked for more information about his "web portal" proposal". And she could find nothing. So she mentioned that last night.



She also came prepared with the facts on gun violence. Indeed, Missouri's repeal of background checks was followed by a rising murder rate in that state. And indeed, Nevada (which has nothing close to universal background checks) is the 9th deadliest state for gun violence. And there's plenty more evidence indicating that background checks work (and conversely, the loophole plagued status quo does not). So what's Rep. Heck waiting for?

Last night, he said he wants a "more holistic approach". And what would that entail? An assault weapons ban? Limits on magazine capacity? Better guidelines for safe gun storage? Better mental health care? If that's the case, then hallelujah! Go ahead and...

Oh, wait. He didn't mention any of that last night, other than some passive references to mental health care and gun storage. And even then, he couldn't point to any legislation to increase mental health care funding (he's actually done the opposite by trying to repeal Obamacare) or improve gun storage standards.

And that brings us back to HR 1565 & the issue of background checks. While it's a rather modest effort to reduce gun violence, it's a badly needed first step. And Rep. Heck has repeatedly said he supports expanding background checks. So why not push forward the bill that's already on the table?

HR 1565 is already on the table. The policy it covers enjoys widespread popular support, and it can make a real difference in saving lives. We've already waited far too long for this. Why should we wait even longer for phantom legislation that never seems to materialize in real life. Why not just take what's already on the table and run with it?

No, He Can't Have It Both Ways.

We've heard this before. We've heard this so many times it's become predictable. Yet for some reason, Rep. Joe Heck (R-Henderson) keeps trying to have it both ways on comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). He says he's for it, yet does nothing to pass it.

We saw this song & dance routine again last night at Rep. Heck's Green Valley High School town hall meeting. When asked by constituents why he hasn't voted for CIR already, he reiterated his "support"... Then proceeded to offer excuses for the House's failure to address CIR.





Several constituents asked Rep. Heck about the status of CIR in the House. And from there, it quickly went downhill for him.



Apparently, we're not the only ones who remember Rep. Joe Heck's promising words on CIR exactly one year ago. And we're not the only ones who remember Rep. Heck's vote to deport DREAMers last June, as that was also brought up last night. Oh, and quite a few of the town hall attendees also remembered Rep. Joe Heck's renewed call for CIR last August.

Yet later that month at another town hall meeting, Rep. Joe Heck backed away and promoted a "step by step approach". Yet despite his promises that would result in overall CIR, the House has failed to pass any sort of immigration reform (other than the anti-CIR "Deport DREAMers" amendment mentioned above). That's why NV-03 constituent Ron Nelsen asked him to just sign a discharge petition for HR 15 already.



Last night, Rep. Heck dared the audience to name any House Republican who's done more for CIR than he has. Off the top of our heads, we can name three: Jeff Denham (R-California), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), and David Valadao (R-California). Unlike Heck, they already agreed to cosponsor HR 15. And if they, Heck, and 20 more House Republicans sign a discharge petition for HR 15, they can then pass CIR once & for all.

They can't say the votes aren't there. After all, CIR arch nemesis Steve King (R-Iowa) admitted earlier this month that the votes exist to pass CIR.

And in a shocking turn of events, even Senator Dean Heller has broken his silence on the House's failure to pass CIR. The Reno Gazette Journal's Ray Hagar caught Senator Heller speaking with CIR advocates in Reno yesterday. And at that gathering, Senator Heller clearly indicated that the House has the votes to pass CIR.

So what's holding it up? Last night, Heck attempted to deflect blame onto President Obama, CIR advocates, the Senate (Hear that, Senator Dean Heller?), and whoever else he could think of. But ultimately, it's always been House Republicans' choice to kill CIR. Heck, they even decided to kill their own "principles for immigration reform"! So there's no one else Rep. Heck can blame.

Funny enough, Rep. Heck finally declared after a night of frustrating questions, "You can't have it both ways!" He's quite correct on that. And he needs to start taking his own advice. He can't claim he's for CIR, then stand with his "leadership" and make excuses for their decision to kill CIR. If he truly wants reform, then he must make the effort to pass it. He simply can't have it both ways.

Cutting to the Truth

This was likely bound to happen. As the G-O-TEA Shutdown has been dragging on, a certain "Sunny" politician up for reelection next year was bound to start fretting over the looming storm clouds. And now, that's exactly what's happening.

To be fair, it's not just about politics. It's also about the failure to achieve the most basic policy goal in Washington: Keep the government open and pay the nation's bills. And as long as this failure to perform the most basic function of government continues, the entire nation suffers... Including (amd especially) Nevada. And that's the other reason why Governor Brian Sandoval (R) is worried.

“Particularly at the end of the month, I think that’s really when we are going to start to see … some catastrophic issues going on for the state,” Sandoval said.

“Time is short. We have hundreds of thousands of Nevadans facing real consequences. The first of the month is right around the corner.”

Most immediately, 362,000 food stamp [or SNAP] recipients will see their benefits halt on Nov. 1 and the 500 state employees who administer that program will face potential furloughs if the shutdown is not resolved. About 425,000 women, infants and children [WIC] would also stop seeing food benefits.

To continue both programs without federal money would cost the state $50 million a month.

“We don’t have it,” Sandoval said, of the state’s $6.1 billion biennial budget. “We can’t afford it.”

And to make matters even worse, unemployment benefits, rape crisis centers, energy assistance programs, and Medicaid will also have to shut down soon if the federal government doesn't reopen. Even the Nevada National Guard is running dangerously low on the most basic supplies. This is no hyperbole, just fast approaching catastrophe.

So why hasn't Congress fixed this already? Why is the federal government still shut down? Perhaps subconsciously, Rep. Joe Heck (R-What?) provided the answer.

"In a way, when you know that no matter what you do, 50 percent of the district is not going to be happy, does it matter?” Heck said of his constituents. “Really, it frees me to concentrate on doing what I think is best.”

What is best, in Heck’s opinion, is withholding support for a clean budget resolution until Democrats make some concessions on deficit reduction. He is sticking to his guns on that, even if other House Republicans think it’s about time to give in to Democrats’ demands.

Nearly two dozen Republicans, many of whom have more partisan voting records than either Nevada GOP congressman — recently signed a pledge to vote for a clean budget resolution if it comes up.

“It would have to be a bill, and I don’t comment on hypothetical bills,” Heck said when the Sun asked if he might consider signing on.

But in theory, Heck is not on board.

“What is there associated with the clean (budget resolution)?” he asked. “How are we going to address our debt and our deficit?”

Actually, that's already been happening. The federal budget deficit has fallen fast and is now the smallest it's been in over four years. And on top of this, Senator Harry Reid (D) and his fellow Senate Democrats offered a budget with even more deficit reduction.

This year, we've been enduring a whole lot of austerity. In fact, many prominent economists have been warning that America has been enduring too much austerity. With America's economic recovery already fragile before the Shutdown Sh*tfest commenced, the last thing our economy needs is even more austerity throwing people out of work and reducing economic output.

Let's get real. This isn't really about deficit reduction. If it was, they wouldn't be demanding tax cuts that would add to the deficit.

So why are Joe Heck and so many of his G-O-TEA colleagues suddenly feigning concern for the budget deficit? Simple answer: Their obsession with destroying Obamacare (aka the Affordable Care Act) has led to dropping poll numbers and new worries about
Republican losses in next year's midterm election. So now, they're desperately grasping onto anything that can be construed as a "winning message".

After all, Republican infighting doesn't make a "winning message". And they don't want to admit that this Shutdown Sh*tfest was actually caused by their internal chaos. So instead, they continue playing this ridiculous game of "Pin the Blame on Someone Else". And today, they're pointing fingers at Democrats for "not wanting to cut the deficit" despite the fact that President Obama and Congressional Democratic leaders have agreed to drastic deficit reduction.

And that leads us back to Republicans' political woes. Rep. Heck tacitly admitted he's in political danger. And Governor Sandoval is going to greater lengths to distance himself from Heck, Senator Dean Heller (R-Why?), and Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Really?). Deep down, they and all their advisers know what Kevin Drum says is true.

It's crazy. How do you get across how insurrectionary this is? Raising the debt ceiling isn't a concession from Republicans that deserves a corresponding concession from Democrats. It's the financial equivalent of a nuclear bomb: both sides will go up in smoke if it's triggered. Ditto for the government shutdown. And ditto again for the piecemeal spending bills, which are basically a way for Republicans to fund only the parts of government they like but not anything else.

You can't govern a country this way. You can't allow a minority party to make relentless demands not through the political system, but by threatening Armageddon if they don't get what they want. It's not what the Constitution intended; it's not something any president could countenance; and it's reckless almost beyond imagining.

And most important of all, it's not something that should get written about as if it's just a modest escalation of normal political disagreements. It's not normal. At all. But how do you get this across? How do you get across just how non-normal it is that we're even talking about it?

This is why Governor Sandoval is now panicking. This is why Rep. Heck must grasp at straws to spin away his party’s reckless behavior. And this is why so many Americans can't wrap their heads around the unbridled insani-TEA on Capitol Hill. That's the dangerous truth behind the crazy spin.

Still Makes No $

Earlier this morning, we were reminded of the latest and greatest manufactured crisis to hit Capitol Hill. Never mind we still have over a month until Halloween, politicians and media pundits are already spooked. Even the high and mighty at the Federal Reserve and Wall Street are feeling the fright.

Even as we're seeing real crises develop around the world, The Beltway Pundit Class continues to obsess over the manufactured crisis that's ripping the Republican Party apart while causing jitters among economists. As we've discussed here many times before, it doesn't have to be this way. Yet for some reason, Congressional Republicans keep pushing us to the brink.

Last night, Desert Beacon had to debunk the spin coming from Rep. Mark Amodei's (R-Drama) office regarding his vote for fiscal insani-TEA. Of course, he claims he just helped the House "do its job". If he defines "do its job" as cause unnecessary drama, then he may be right. Funny enough, Rep. Amodei was the one claiming he was "tired of the drama" earlier this year.

This actually isn't the only fit of drama coming from Nevada Republicans. Over the weekend, Rep. Joe Heck's (R-TEA Curious) office sent a letter to constituents who asked about his vote to force millions of Americans to starve. Since July, he and other House Republicans have been on a mission to slash and burn the SNAP program that provides a critical lifeline to millions of food insecure Americans and our nation's economy. And once again, Rep. Heck is claiming his vote was to "reform" SNAP. He even claimed the bill provides $333 million more for soup kitchens!

OK, so what's so bad about that? Can't those pesky poor people go to soup kitchens? Nope, since soup kitchens and other private charities are already stretched beyond capacity due to post-Great Recession poverty and unemployment. An extra $333 million over ten years, or less than $670,000 per state per year, won't nearly be enough to take care of this. After all, House Republicans voted to slash $40 billion (!!!) from SNAP and throw them to already overextended private charities.

Rep. Heck also cited "fraud" as a reason to vote to gut SNAP, but the "fraud" claims he and other House Republicans cite have already been debunked. So why do they keep threatening the lives of so many Americans? Maybe Paul Krugman can explain.

[... L]ast year, average food stamp benefits were $4.45 a day. Also, about those “able-bodied people”: almost two-thirds of SNAP beneficiaries are children, the elderly or the disabled, and most of the rest are adults with children.

Beyond that, however, you might think that ensuring adequate nutrition for children, which is a large part of what SNAP does, actually makes it less, not more likely that those children will be poor and need public assistance when they grow up. And that’s what the evidence shows. The economists Hilary Hoynes and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach have studied the impact of the food stamp program in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was gradually rolled out across the country. They found that children who received early assistance grew up, on average, to be healthier and more productive adults than those who didn’t — and they were also, it turns out, less likely to turn to the safety net for help.

SNAP, in short, is public policy at its best. It not only helps those in need; it helps them help themselves. And it has done yeoman work in the economic crisis, mitigating suffering and protecting jobs at a time when all too many policy makers seem determined to do the opposite. So it tells you something that conservatives have singled out this of all programs for special ire.

Even some conservative pundits worry that the war on food stamps, especially combined with the vote to increase farm subsidies, is bad for the G.O.P., because it makes Republicans look like meanspirited class warriors. Indeed it does. And that’s because they are.

And even worse, Reps. Heck & Amodei have been voting to continue subsidies for several of their House Republican colleagues. So "welfare" is good for Republicans with "family farms", but not for poor people in actual need?

To make matters even worse, the House G-O-TEA budget plan offers even more painful austerity. It denies chemotherapy to cancer patients, preschool to children, housing to families, and help to domestic violence victims. Oh, and did I mention it (further) threatens economic recovery?

So now, we must ask this: Why are Joe Heck, Mark Amodei, and other House Republicans threatening the lives of so many Americans? And why do they persist in pursuing the same old economy busting austerity policies? Their prescription for economic ruin makes no sense.

Who's Afraid of Affordable Health Care?

Here we go again. Rep. Joe Heck (R-Henderson) is again making headlines. But this time, there's a twist.

Remember when we discussed the push-back that Congressional Republicans were starting to get over their knee-jerk obstruction over Obamacare (aka the Affordable Care Act, or ACA)? Last week, it was Rep. Heck's turn. At a last-minute town hall meeting in Sandy Valley, NV-03 resident and small business owner Ron Nelsen directly confronted Rep. Heck over his opposition to the ACA. Mr. Nelsen explained how the ACA is saving his business money while also ensuring his employees have access to the health care they need, but Rep. Heck didn't seem all that interested in the facts.



All Rep. Heck could say was that there were a lot of pages in the ACA. Ummm... OK?! He does realize this law offers many long awaited reforms to the nation's health care system, doesn’t he?

Oh, and he claimed that "Republicans never had a chance to offer an alternative". Really? In order to offer an alternative, they must have one to offer. And Rep. Heck conveniently forgot that ACA/Obamacare is largely based on the conservative/Republican alternative to "Hillarycare"!

But alas, the very Heritage Foundation that laid the intellectual foundation for Obamacare is now on a kamikaze mission to destroy the Affordable Care Act while also crashing the global economy. So of course, Rep. Heck must now act like Obamacare is so awful and terrible and "COM'U'NIZMM!!!" and "UN'MUR'KIN!!!" And when confronted with reality, he must conjure up some excuse to dismiss it.

And of course, Rep. Heck and other G-O-TEA acolytes must continue in their efforts to kill Obamacare with their toxic TEA. After all, if it's allowed to work, they will receive none of the credit. And that's what actually scares them.

Yep, this is why Rep. Heck is afraid of affordable health care.

Toxic "TEA"

This week, we've been seeing more activity in Congress as S 744 (the "Gang of 8" comprehensive immigration reform [CIR] bill) advances. This morning, we learned of Senator Harry Reid's (D) plan to bring S 744 to the Senate floor next Monday. He and other US Senate Democratic leaders formally announced this just hours ago.



For Senator Reid and many more Nevadans, this is personal. Many of us have family members who immigrated here. And many of us have family & friends who are still struggling with the nation's broken immigration system.

Senator Reid also talked about this earlier in the week.



And there are quite a few numbers to back him up. CIR will actually help our economy if/when enacted. This is why the 21st Century Know Nothings must resort to outright lies false & misleading "reports" and "findings" to try refuting this.

Yet despite this, the "TEA" fueled opposition to CIR gained some big momentum in the "TEA" fueled House today. After all, we are talking about the "TEA" fueled bizarro world where actual governance is shoved aside to make way for Scandal-mania. This is why we actually saw this go down on the House floor just hours ago.

To a chorus of boos from the gallery, House Republicans voted 224-201 on Thursday to approve an amendment that defunds the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The amendment, from Rep. Steve King (R-IA), undercuts the flexibility that allows the Department of Homeland Security to halt deporting DREAMers and instead focus on people convicted of crimes.

After the vote, the House Hispanic Caucus tweeted,”House Republicans just voted to treat DREAMers and undocumented spouses of servicemembers in the same way as violent criminals.” Only six Republicans voted against the measure. [...]

King, a virulently anti-immigrant congressman, has already announced his intention to undermine any immigration reform effort. When Republicans last held a vote on a similar King amendment, it passed 238-175, with four Republicans voting against it.

But this time, the vote occurred at exactly the same time the House means to march forward on an immigration reform bill that would give DREAMers permanent legal status. The House Gang of Eight may have finally reached a tentative deal for a 15-year path to citizenship, after months of fractured negotiations on a bill. One indication of where the House stands on immigration is House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) vote today. Cantor voted yes on King’s amendment, even though he announced support for the DREAM Act (in theory) in February.

Oh, and make sure to examine this closely. Both Reps. Joe Heck (R-Henderson) and Mark Amodei (R-Carson City) voted for the King Amendment to deport DREAMers. Oh, yes. That's right. They actually voted today to deport DREAMers who were brought here as young children and only know life in America. Oh, and they said nothing about how they plan to pay for such mass deportations.

And of course, we've yet to hear a peep from Senator Dean Heller (R-"TEA" Curious). He talked a good game on immigration reform... When he felt it was politically expedient. But now that S 744 is about to hit the Senate floor and his House colleagues essentially just voted to blow it up, Senator Heller has nothing to say on CIR... But he did just tweet out his love for job-killing austerity!

So is this the end of (the push for comprehensive) immigration reform in the 113th Congress? We may not know for sure just yet, but the signs don't look good now. And once again, this is because Congressional Republicans just don't know how to quit the 21st Century Know Nothings and their toxic "TEA".

They're Not "Props", Joe Heck. They're Reality.

In the past week, we've been wondering where Joe Heck would fall in the gun safety debate in Congress. He released some "moderate" sounding yet very empty language just before several of his constituents tried to meet with him last week. But now, it looks like we finally have an answer.

.@RepJoeHeck on KDWN: "Anti-gun" forces trying to use "the cloud of emotion surrounding Newtown...to limit Second Amendment rights."

But wait, there's more.

Radio talker Alan Stock: "Nauseating....shameful act" to put up Gabby Giffords as a "prop" in the gun debate. @RepJoeHeck: "I agree."

Really? Did Joe Heck really just go there? I wonder if he's willing to call Gabby Giffords a mere "prop" to her face. I wonder if he's also willing to do that to the families of those who died in Newtown, Aurora, Tucson, Chicago, and/or Southern California.

Does Heck also think of Janay Mcfarlane as a mere "prop"?

18-year-old Janay Mcfarlane, a mother of a 3-month-old boy, was shot in the head and killed in a Chicago suburb just hours after her sister sat behind President Obama as he advocated for tighter gun regulations on Friday.

January was one of the deadliest in Chicago in more than a decade, with more than 40 people killed in homicides. “Last year, there were 443 murders with a firearm in this city,and 65 of them were 18 and under,” Obama said in his speech. “That’s the equivalent of a Newtown every four months. That’s precisely why the overwhelming majority of Americans are asking for some common sense proposals to make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun.” Obama also remembered Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old who was killed in a South Side park days after performing at his inauguration.

As we discussed on Sunday, Chicago has suffered immensely from gun violence despite its strict local regulations. That's because Illinois state law is more lax, and because it's incredibly easy for Chicago street gangs and other criminals to obtain firearms from "gun easy" states like Indiana and Mississippi.

Either Joe Heck doesn't understand this... Or he does, yet he still refuses to act on gun safety reform. Either way, it's reprehensible. And Joe Heck needs to open his eyes and notice the reality checks all around him on the vicious reality of gun violence.

It's not as if Nevada is immune from this epic gun violence. Something must change. And Joe Heck needs to see the reality check(s) right in front of him.

Joe Heck('s Office) Gets a Reality Check

This issue isn't going away any time soon. Especially as we see more shootings here in Nevada and across the country, gun safety remains in the headlines. And today, Rep. Joe Heck (R-Henderson) finally broke his silence on the issue that's already been debated by many of his colleagues in Congress for the past two months.

So what did Dr. Heck prescribe as a policy solution? [crickets]

That's why ProgressNow Nevada and some NV-03 concerned constituents paid a visit to Joe Heck's district office in the Southwest Valley. Here's a glimpse of what happened.







Several of Heck's constituents came to make a statement. Yet interestingly enough, Heck's district staff were ready and waiting for them. To their credit, they talked a bit with constituents. But of course, they soon handed out "constituent comment forms" for them to fill out and leave with the staff. There was no actual sit-down time at the office.

Unfortunately for Heck's staff, media cameras were also present. But hey, at least there were also a few counter-protesters there to decry President Obama's gun safety plan... Or at least the NRA's spin on it. Even a couple of the counter-protesters conceded the necessity of universal background checks!

So how much longer can Heck stay mum on gun safety reform?

This likely won't be the last time Heck hears from his constituents on gun safety. President Obama and gun safety advocates plan to highlight this issue in a major way tomorrow during the State of the Union Address. Grassroots groups like Courage Campaign will continue pushing for comprehensive gun safety reform, including the new Assault Weapons Ban proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and President Obama. And as long as a broad majority of Americans demand action on gun safety, Congress will feel the pressure to act.

So is Heck ready to have an honest conversation on real solutions to prevent gun violence? Or will he hide behind empty platitudes while tacitly approving of the latest outbreak of "tea party" madness? How many more gun induced tragedies must Nevada and the nation endure before Heck & his colleagues in Congress take action? Heck's constituents are waiting for answers.

NV-03: Surprise @ the KSNV Studio

Probably as I'm writing this, the final NV-03 debate may be starting to wrap up. (It will air later tonight on KSNV 3.) This time, Jon Ralston is hosting. And it's probably no holds barred.

Outside the KSNV studio near Downtown Las Vegas, this is how Joe Heck was "greeted".



A group of Nevada Democrats rallied outside the studio. I guess they just wanted to give Heck a little reminder of what's coming his way.

Perhaps this is why John Oceguera was much happier when he saw the activists.





Oceguera was quite happy to see supporters cheering him in. And actually, he may not have even known they were coming. So it turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

I guess this qualifies as one of the lighter moments on the campaign trail. Every once in a while, it's OK to let loose for a spell. And it's OK to rally outside a TV studio.

NV-03: One More Reality Check for Joe Heck

This morning, The Sun had a fact check article on recent ads hitting Joe Heck on matters of women's health care. Karoun Demerjian pretty much confirmed the facts behind the ads, then said they deserved an "eye roll" because the CDC wasn't yet recommending broad coverage of the vaccine to cover cervical cancer.



But here's the thing: It didn't take long for them to come around. And in the mean time, there was more than enough information available to confirm what his fellow legislators agreed to. Here's what Nevada NOW did to set the record straight on what Heck did in 2007.

Leading American public health organizations that include the CDC, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend wide-spread vaccination, as do all public health agencies in Europe. Nevada NOW is baffled why Senator Joe Heck, as a doctor, would vote against a bill in the state legislature that brings such health benefits to Nevada’s women at no public cost. SB 409 does not mandate administration of the vaccine (as 22 other states plus the District of Columbia are considering or have passed). Four other states, in addition to Nevada, have passed bills like SB 409, which (as passed in 2007 and signed by Governor Gibbons) requires health insurance companies in Nevada to cover the vaccine for those who opt to have it administered to their daughters. Moreover, Prior to SB409, the vaccine was already covered by Medicaid (through the federally funded Vaccines for Children program), by Nevada Check-Up, and by most insurance plans in the state, so there was really no savings for any entity, public or private, in opposing the bill. There was, however, a great risk to the public health.

To explain himself, Heck compares the vast majority of women American women who will contract genital HPV to a smoker who contracts lung cancer. It is important to note here that conservative studies estimate one in five women nationally will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime, and that Nevada women are statistically more likely to be subject to coerced sex than the national average. We also understand from common sense that a woman cannot control the past or even the present partners of her husband, boyfriend or lover, so that a woman need not engage in “risky” behavior to be at risk for contracting HPV or cervical cancer. For these reasons, most in the Religious Right, including most conservative organizations in Nevada, have dropped their previously stalwart opposition to the vaccine. Senator Heck stands to the right of almost everyone in his opposition to making the vaccine more widely available.

If we were to draw Senator Heck’s analogy with smoking and lung cancer to the logical conclusion, all women should abstain from having sex. My advice to Senator Heck is to consult Mrs. Heck before he is tempted to make more misleading comparisons.

Oh, yes. He went there. And ever since his narrow election to Congress in 2010, he keeps going back there.



Joe Heck has even opposed reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act because he doesn't seem to mind violence against minority women! No really, this is what he's been doing.

Here's the thing: If Joe Heck really didn't have a "women problem", then why does he keep fighting in the G-O-TEA War on Women? If he doesn't really have a problem with women's civil right, then why does he keep voting against women's health care? From his vote to block access to the HPV vaccine to his votes to defund Planned Parenthood to his continuing opposition to the Violence Against Women Act, Joe Heck doesn't really seem to care about the well being of Nevada's women.

And it's long past due for Joe Heck to get a reality check on this.

NV-03: Your Budget, Your Values

So DC's local gossip rag caught Joe Heck's new ad. Supposedly, this his big move to "get ahead of likely attacks on Social Security and Medicare". At first, that sounds all fine and dandy.

However, there's a catch. Joe Heck's words don't really match his actions. Remember this?



And remember this?

Paul Ryan's budget dumps another $187,000 tax cut on the lap of every multi-millionaire and billionaire. Yet while the ultra-wealthy are getting another "bailout", the working poor suffer as 62% of Ryan's proposed budget cuts hit programs like Medicaid and Pell Grants that are meant to lift Americans out of poverty. Oh, and let's not forget the centerpiece of Paul Ryan's budget, which is his "RyanCare" plan to end Medicare as we know it and force seniors to pay up to $5,900 more for health care. Even retired military officers have come out against Paul Ryan's budget because of his proposed cuts to international programs meant to keep America safe. [...]

If even Paul Ryan's own constituents can't stand what he's trying to do to our country, what makes Joe Heck think he can get away with this here in Nevada? Between his own "Destroying America's Trust in Our Economy Act" and his constant votes for Paul Ryan's dangerous austerity agenda, Heck is sending us the message that he cares more about pleasing Paul Ryan and the rest of the House G-O-TEA leadership than doing what's right for Nevada's working families. All Heck is doing is proving Mr. Gleaner's point that he's nothing more than a G-O-TEA tool.

So yes, this is something to remember when Joe Heck talks about Medicare. However, it doesn't actually end there. In addition to their shared goal of privatizing and "voucher-izing" Medicare, Joe Heck and Paul Ryan share an overall desire to rip to shreds the very social safety net that has made America's great middle class, as well as our economy built upon that foundation, possible.

Remember when Joe Heck actually jumped to the right of even Paul Ryan by introducing his "Destroying America's Trust in Our Economy Act"?

Nowhere in Heck's "Restoring America's Faith and Trust Act" does it address the Bush tax rates, war spending, or economic health. Instead, Heck wants to slash federal investment in our people to 2006 levels and fire more public sector workers! Even though we have more miltary veterans in need of VA care, college students in need of Pell Grants, working poor families in need of Medicaid and food stamps, retirees in need of Medicare and Social Security, and unemployed workers in need of unemployment insurance, Heck refuses to acqknowledge this reality and instead has introduced this bill that would plunge our economy into double-dip recession if enacted!

If we were to slash all these programs and more, we would all pay the price of further suffering. Without unemployment insurance, those without work can't survive. Same goes for seniors on Medicare, working poor families on food stamps and Medicaid, students with Pell Grants, and veterans using VA assistance. If they can't even buy food and basic supplies, let alone purchase anything else, our economy would take a massive hit. Oh, and in the longer term the budget deficit would only worsen as tax revenue plunges because of even more people losing their jobs.

Remember all of this when Joe Heck declares his love for public education, military veterans, Social Security & Medicare, or pretty much anything else that requires some kind of public investment. Remember that in the end, one values what one pays for and one's values can be revealed in how one budgets. So when we look at Joe Heck's record on setting and influencing the federal budget, we see that he doesn't actually value that middle class foundation of America's economy as much as he claims to in his ads.

Also remember to contrast Joe Heck's empty rhetoric with what John Oceguera has said and done about that middle class foundation. Here's what he told the audience at the Henderson Democratic Club last night about how he demonstrates his values.





It's one thing to pay for glitzy TV ads that show happy looking seniors, smiling students, and gauzy rhetoric about "protecting the middle class". It's another to actually match one's rhetoric with one's record. And so far, Joe Heck has failed to do that. Without Medicare, Social Security, Pell Grants, unemployment insurance, SCHIP (children's health care), and so much more of the American social safety net, America's middle class couldn't exist.

Without Medicare & Social Security, many seniors would be thrown into dire poverty. Without Pell Grants and low cost federally backed student loans, many young Americans would be forced to relinquish their dreams of finishing college and embarking on a brighter economic future. And again, without the social safety net that makes America's middle class possible, we wouldn't have a middle class and we wouldn't have any hope for a stronger economy. If Joe Heck really valued that, he'd reflect those values in his (bills targeting the federal) budget.

Joe Heck STILL Needs a Reality Check on Health Care

Back in March, we discussed Joe Heck's efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with an inadequate patchwork of political catch phrases. Yesterday, he was back at it and talking like a "big shooter" in predicting how many Blue Dog Democrats will cross over and vote to repeal ACA next week, boasting of his role in advising Mitt Romney on (his) health care (folly), and brag about how great a political strategist he is. Yep, that's what Joe Heck has been up to lately.

Apparently, Joe Heck doesn't really care about the real world impact of his "ideas". Does Heck even know what happens if we were to repeal ACA and go ahead with his alternative? Fortunately, Desert Beacon actually does. And she's even exposed Heck and the other Republicans' "repeal and replace" rhetoric for what it really is.

So why is Heck doing this? Simple. He has no other choice. Because Republicans really have no workable alternative to ACA, they have to fill that empty hot air with something. And right now, the only "something" they have is meaningless political rhetoric. Besides, what else can they say about repealing a law that has already begun to change our health care system for the better?

It really comes down to this. Joe Heck wants to run against "The ObamaCare Bogeyman". He doesn't want to actually run against the real "ObamaCare" and what it actually does.

Joe Heck Needs a Reality Check... On His Dirty "Check-gate" Secret

Ah, how convenient! All of a sudden, House G-O-TEA leadership decides to highlight Joe Heck's newest bill. If you're wondering why, I explained back in April.

However, Desert Beacon unearthed even more "inconvenient truth" that Joe Heck is trying to bury with this latest desperate publicity stunt piece of legislation.

Congressman Joe Heck may have introduced legislation on this subject, but it’s not like he’s the first one with the idea. A very similar bill, H. 981, was introduced by Representative Richard Nugent (R-FL5) on March 9, 2011. Congressman Nugent’s bill garnered three co-sponsors and still sits in the House Administration Committee. The House Administration Committee has not yet scheduled a hearing, much less a mark up session, on H.R. 981, which tends to imply that H.R. 5951 will meet a similar fate. There is no Congressional Budget Office scoring of H.R. 981, so those “savings” remain securely in the “potential” category.

If Representative Heck wanted to score points bashing public employee retirement programs — such as the one from which his Democratic opponent draws his pension after 20 years of service as a firefighter —then some symbolic bill like H.R. 981/H.R. 5951 might be appropriate. As serious legislation, the idea hasn’t even secured enough support to make it to a committee hearing in the 112th Congress since March, 2011.

Congressman Heck may also want to dim the spotlight on public employee benefits since his own record has a bit of a blip. His Democratic opponent, John Oceguera, points out that when Heck went to Congress he dissolved his company, putting his wife out of work — the Heck’s then reported unemployment benefits for his wife, thus supplementing the family income.

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. As always, Desert Beacon unearthed the real reason why Joe Heck is touting this new bill.

As we discussed over the weekend, Joe Heck has a really ugly scandal in his hands now. Somehow, he has to find a way to make "Check-gate" go away to keep alive his political career. After all, Heck thought he had a ready-made issue to use against John Oceguera. But instead, Heck looks like a hypocrite in berating "big government welfare" while Heck himself benefits from all sorts of "big government welfare".

I wonder what Heck will try next.

Joe Heck's Social Media Town Hall Really Was Insightful... But Not As He Wanted.

As you can see, I participated in Congressman Joe Heck's social media town hall last night. I asked him about renewable energy investment, as well as about college affordability. And to his credit, Heck did respond to me last night... Though he wasn't the only one responding.

So at least he's interacting with constituents this time... But is he being fully honest? Let's look at some important issues discussed last night to find out. Oh, and if you'd like to keep score yourself, keep this voting record handy.

On clean energy, Joe Heck talked about a handful of bills he added his name to, but neglected to mention his going along with the G-O-TEA agenda to enrich the fossil fuel industry at our expense. Instead of taking action to bring more clean, green jobs to Nevada, he's instead pledged to protect big oil companies' profits.

Now regarding holding back the doubling of the interest rate on student loans, Joe Heck did vote for a bill to do that. However, he neglected to mention that the bill he voted for would have paid for that by ending a critical Affordable Care Act provision that invests in preventive health care. In essence, it was the classic "Rob Peter to Pay Paul" scheme as House Republicans wanted to look like they were doing something about student loan interest rates. But really, their plan would have done something at the cost of killing efforts to save money in fighting diseases by preventing Americans from contracting them.

And speaking of college students, it was interesting how Heck declined to say anything about President Obama's new immigration directive and/or the DREAM Act. I guess he's just following G-O-TEA standard operating procedure there.

I guess we can also say that about Heck's continued bungling of all things Medicare & Social Security. He talked about "preserving programs for future generations", but neglected to mention his everlasting support for Paul Ryan's "tea party" wet dream of a Medicare busting budget. And in case that alone wasn't bad enough, the Joe Heck approved Ryan Budget also slashes Medicaid to death, along with police funding, food safety protections, and food stamp assistance for working families in need, all so the G-O-TEA can keep safe those "billionaire bailouts" in the federal tax code that really do nothing to create jobs.

And funny enough, a few Nevada GOP operatives jumped into the townhall to toss in some fluff questions on job creation. So of course, they didn't mention the G-O-TEA's continued obstruction of the BIPARTISAN transportation infrastructure bill that would create 1.9 MILLION jobs if enacted. But wait, Heck actually did bring this up indirectly... By touting the calamitous Keystone XL pipeline that would do nothing to create jobs here in Nevada, even as it enriches a Canadian oil company while destroying fragile ecosystems both in Canada and in the US. Long story short, Heck is joining his G-O-TEA colleagues in blocking the transportation bill that really can create jobs because it doesn't include approval of the Keystone pipeline that does next to nothing to create jobs. Wow, talk about priorities (that are clearly out of whack)!

All in all, it seemed like Joe Heck was trying to "soften" his image in last night's Twitter and Facebook town hall. But in the end, he really couldn't hide his real "tea party" approved record. Seriously, if Joe Heck's biggest accomplishments are denying health care to Nevada's working families and protecting Wall Street fat cats instead of middle class investors, then his priorities really are out of whack.

Hey, perhaps that's the best part of last night's town hall. We caught a rare glimpse of Joe Heck's true priorities.

And Now, Joe Heck's "Moderate" Baloney.

Now that Dean Heller is doing "the moderate dance", Joe Heck is joining him on that dance floor.

This week, the Club for Growth, a politically conservative outfit that advocates low spending and limited government, put out its rankings of the freshman, “Tea Party” class in the House. Heck was hovering somewhere around the bottom.

The Club gave Heck a 50 percent conservative ranking, making him the 13th-least conservative of the 87 freshmen in the House. Overall, he ranked somewhere in the middle: 196th out of 430 representatives whose votes were analyzed. (Members who only served partial terms — like Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei — didn’t get a rating.)

The numbers seem to make sense for Heck, who accepted Tea Party support as a candidate but has shied from vocally affiliating himself with the movement as a congressman. Heck’s office refused to comment for this article.

Ah, so Joe Heck now wants to believe he's "moderate" because Club for Growth didn't give him a top score. Give me a break! Here's the number that really matters.

According to a vote breakdown from the Washington Post, Heck votes with the Republican Party about 90 percent of the time.

Just yesterday, Heck voted to show a blind eye to domestic violence against minority and LGBTQ women. In February, Heck tried to justify his opposition to equal access to women's reproductive health care by saying insurance coverage of contraception "has nothing to do with women's health issues". Joe Heck has been front and center in fighting for the G-O-TEA in their War on Women.



But wait, there's more! Joe Heck just this week called marriage equality "a distraction". Oh, and Heck also belittled LGBTQ Nevadans by saying their relationships should not be respected as "traditional marriage". He cited Question 2, but that was enacted a decade ago. Nevada voters have evolved on accepting LGBTQ equality alongside Harry Reid and President Obama. Yet instead of listening to his fellow Nevadans on accepting LGBTQ families and treating us all equally, Joe Heck is joining hands with Mitt Romney and the rest of the G-O-TEA in encouraging discrimination.

And that's not the only issue where Joe Heck is joining hands with Mitt Romney. Along with Romney, Heck supports Paul Ryan's radical budget that ends Medicare as we know it. He's repeatedly stood by Ryan & Romney, and against Nevada seniors who worked hard to earn their Medicare. And in case that isn't bad enough, Heck also wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, allow insurance companies to deny Americans health care for whatever reason(s) they want, force seniors to pay more for prescription drugs, and increase the federal budget deficit. How on earth is that "moderate"? And more importantly, how does that benefit his constituents?



Perhaps Joe Heck just doesn't care about his constituents. That would explain his opposition to bringing more green jobs to our state. He'll do whatever it takes to protect bailouts for fossil fuel industry billionaires, but do nothing to ensure Nevada's workers get a fair shake and stable work.

So why again are we supposed to think of Joe Heck as "moderate"? Maybe because he's just "moderately" in the pocket of powerful corporate interests? Because he's only "moderately" controlled by the likes of Bank of America and Goldman Sachs? Because he only "moderately" cares more about staying in their good graces and John Boehner's good graces than doing what's best for Nevada? What baloney.

Joe Heck Needs a Reality Check on Health Care

So today, Joe Heck is pulling a ridiculous stunt introducing a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with some weak sauce water-down of what's law now. Heck claims this is "repair", but all it would do is damage the lives of real Americans who are being helped by the ACA. Dawn Josephson and her family are among those real Americans that Joe Heck's bill would harm.

Dawn Josephson could barely believe it when she found health insurance that would actually cover the cost of treating her young son’s eye condition.

Josephson, a freelance editor, wife and mother of two in Jacksonville, Fla., had been spending as much as $1,000 a month of her family’s budget on surgery, doctor visits, tests, and treatments in the seven months since 2-year-old Wesley awoke one morning with his eyes pointed toward each other, a condition called strabismus. That was on top of the $807 in monthly premiums the family spent on an insurance plan that excluded anything related to her son’s eyes.

A few weeks after President Barack Obama signed a sweeping health care reform law in March 2010, Josephson got a call from another insurance company telling her the family had been accepted into a new plan. “What about Wesley’s eye? If he needs another surgery, another test, another something, is it covered?” she asked the customer service representative. She pressed the point again: What’s the catch? “Nothing. Your family’s fully covered,” she was told.

Josephson's change in fortune was the result of the new law's provision that prohibits insurance companies from refusing to cover children with pre-existing medical conditions. The family's new insurer decided to change its rules before the law required it, giving Josephson, her husband Dave, Wesley, and his little sister Margo some relief. A few months later, Josephson got to meet Obama at a health care reform event in Falls Church, Va.

And the Josephsons are not the only Americans who would be harmed by Heck's bill to repeal the ACA.





Under the Affordable Care Act, Americans like the ones featured above will see expanded access to low-cost and no-cost preventive care, no more limits on lifetime coverage, an end to discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, and (of course) more affordable health insurance. Here's what Americans get if the ACA is repealed, even if it's replaced by Heck's bill or some other Republican alternative legislation.

Two years ago today, President Obama affixed his signature to the Affordable Care Act, the first major piece of federal healthcare legislation since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. The bill was the end result of months of careful negotiations in Congress and years of failed attempts by previous administrations to reform an increasingly expensive and outdated healthcare system.

Even before the ink dried, Republicans started calling for the law’s repeal and have so far voted at least 25 times to roll back or defund it. Should they succeed, millions of Americans would become uninsured, seniors would pay more for prescription drug coverage, and the insurance industry would once again be able to deny coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions and impose annual and lifetime limits on coverage.

This is why many Nevadans gathered outside Dean Heller's Senate office yesterday to explain why they don't want the ACA repealed. We're just starting to see progress as more Nevadans are receiving the health care they could not access just two years ago. Why on earth would we want to see that undone?

Perhaps this explains why Joe Heck is now claiming he just wants to "fix" health care reform instead of outright destroying it. However, Heck won't say that his bill largely has that same effect. The "onerous regulations and mandates" he complains about are the very provisions that are working to save Americans' lives. Oh, and by the way, those regulations and mandates that Joe Heck complains about help in cutting the federal budget deficit by $143 billion over the next ten years. If the ACA is repealed, not only are those savings erased, but the deficit actually INCREASES by $230 billion in the next ten years.

This is what Senator Harry Reid explained on the Senate floor yesterday.



And this is what Joe Heck and his BFF, Mitt Romney, don't understand. Perhaps they never have to worry about health care costs, but all the rest of us do. And all the rest of us would very much appreciate expanded access to the health care we need, along with immense savings that actually result in reducing the budget deficit.

As we've discussed before, there's no actual, legitimate policy or legal argument for repealing the Affordable Care Act that Republicans can make, at least if we're to believe they're actually interested in improving health care in this country. So why are they still pulling out this ridiculous "dog & pony show" threatening repeal of the ACA? Simple. They're playing raw politics, and they're hoping they can keep riling up uninformed voters with scary images of "OBAMACARE!!!" What scares the likes of Joe Heck the most is the most recent Pew poll suggesting that as more Americans become more aware of what's actually in "Obamacare", the more they like it.

Heck's "Help" for Social Security? Say It Ain't So, Joe!

I certainly wasn't expecting to see this on Salon.com this morning.



Joe Heck asks:

"Did you know I can help with your SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS?"

I answer:

And how would you do that, Dr. Heck? By taking away Nevada seniors' Social Security benefits?



(These are Heck's own words!)

The kid who’s 18 years old — should that kid have to work to age 70? I don’t know but that could be a possibility to try to make this program work. Because look – Social Security started in 1935. … Fast forward to now. Full retirement age is 67 and the life span is 80. So when they first conceived Social Security they didn’t think they were going to be paying benefits for 13, 15 years. That’s one of the reasons why this pyramid scheme isn’t working.

(The following week, he doubled down on the "pyramid scheme" nonsense when he was a guest on Alan Stock's radio show.)

And don't forget Joe Heck's "Destroying America's Trust in Our Economy Act"! Remember what we discussed last November.

[...] Nowhere in Heck's "Restoring America's Faith and Trust Act" does it address the Bush tax rates, war spending, or economic health. Instead, Heck wants to slash federal investment in our people to 2006 levels and fire more public sector workers! Even though we have more miltary veterans in need of VA care, college students in need of Pell Grants, working poor families in need of Medicaid and food stamps, retirees in need of Medicare and Social Security, and unemployed workers in need of unemployment insurance, Heck refuses to acqknowledge this reality and instead has introduced this bill that would plunge our economy into double-dip recession if enacted!

If we were to slash all these programs and more, we would all pay the price of further suffering. Without unemployment insurance, those without work can't survive. Same goes for seniors on Medicare, working poor families on food stamps and Medicaid, students with Pell Grants, and veterans using VA assistance. If they can't even buy food and basic supplies, let alone purchase anything else, our economy would take a massive hit. Oh, and in the longer term the budget deficit would only worsen as tax revenue plunges because of even more people losing their jobs.

How on earth is that supposed to "help with your Social Security benefits"? When did hurting become "helping"? Maybe that's the case in "Tea Party Fantasy Land", but here in the real world Nevadans want to make sure Social Security remains strong and available for all seniors in need. Once again, Joe Heck needs a reality check.

Joe Heck Gets a Reality Check on Women's Health

Monday night, Rep. Joe Heck (R-"Tea Party") kicked off his campaign in perhaps the most appropriate manner befitting a politician with his kind of record... At an exclusive "invitation only" very-high-dollar fundraiser outside his actual district. But unfortunately for him, a candidate actually running for Congress in that area was also there to say a few things about Dr. Heck's real record of attacking the rights of Nevada's women.



And John Oceguera, one of the Democrats running in the new NV-03, was also there to denounce Heck's embrace of the G-O-TEA's anti-woman agenda. Remember, Heck himself uttered these now infamous words when asked about his opposition to insurance coverage of contraception:

"The fact is this has nothing to do with women’s health issues.”

Is he serious? Does he seriously believe this? Is this all he's ever heard on the subject?



No wonder why Heck's G-O-TEA House colleagues were so afraid to let the women speak.

Well, this may also explain it. The more Americans learn about the G-O-TEA's radical anti-woman agenda, the more they reject it. Maybe Heck's BFF Mitt Romney gets excited about attacking women's right to make their own health care decisions, but the vast majority of Nevadans are not. Just take a look at all the health care services that the G-O-TEA faction in Congress wants to deny to American women! Once Americans figure out what they actually mean when they wax poetic about "liberty", they turn off to the G-O-TEA ideal of giving employers "liberty" in denying preventive health care to women for whatever "religious" excuse they want to throw out.

And Joe Heck still wants to claim that "this has nothing to do with women's health issues"?

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Is he really that clueless? Or is he so cynical that he thinks he can get away with lying to us? Whatever the case, it's becoming even harder to believe that Joe Heck can properly represent the people (and especially the women!) of Nevada's 3rd Congressional District.

Joe Heck Needs a Reality Check on Women's Health Issues

On Monday, we noted the Republicans increasingly turning to "culture war" issues over fear that they can no longer campaign on a lousy economy (since the economy is actually improving under President Obama's watch). Later in the week, we saw this.



And now, it's becoming increasingly clear what the G-O-TEA crowd are talking about when they say they want to "take our country back".

[Rick Santorum's Super PAC "superhero" Foster] Friess’ comment was astonishing in two ways. First, it derailed the entire contraception debate that Republicans have been desperate to keep about “religious freedom” rather than make it about, well, who does or does not keep her knees together. Second, there wasn’t a woman around who didn’t have a guttural reaction.

“I want to punch that guy in the face,” said one female operative who called me on an entirely unrelated matter. Phone calls and IM conversations for the rest of the day included similar appraisals of Santorum’s biggest financial backer.

So there you have it: modern women being told by Republicans that they’re not qualified to talk about their own sexual health, are dressed like “whores” and probably need birth control because they’re so slutty. And this is just in one day.

Democratic women say this is all part of a general pattern that began in 2010 when the tea party helped Republicans win a congressional election based on jobs and deficits and the Republicans then set about passing new anti-abortion legislation and declaring war on Planned Parenthood once in office. They agreed Thursday stood out, though.

“Republican policies have been stuck in the 50s for a while now. I guess this week they decided they wanted the whole retro package,” said Jess McIntosh, communications director at EMILY’s List. “Darrel Issa, you are no Jon Hamm.”

Indeed, it seems like they want to do a "time warp" back to the 1950s... Or maybe the 1850s?

And no, Nevada, we're not immune from this. In fact, none other than our own "Trust me, I'm a doctor!" Joe Heck uttered these words when asked about insurance coverage of contraception:

"The fact is this has nothing to do with women’s health issues.”

Really? Seriously? How could Joe Heck say that?

I've been wondering when someone else would finally notice this. Yesterday, John Oceguera's campaign did.

Joe Heck opposes requiring all employers to provide insurance coverage for birth control, saying that the issue has “nothing to do with women’s health.” Who is he kidding?

It gets worse. Joe Heck doesn’t think insurance companies should be required to cover the HPV vaccine for women, which can help prevent cervical cancer. In fact, as a member of the Nevada Legislature, Heck even voted against it.

Joe Heck even wants to end the right to choose for women. He’s so extreme that he’s been endorsed by an organization that calls exceptions for women’s health “frivolous”.

Well I’ve got news for you, Joe – your positions are out of touch and bad for Nevada women. As a doctor, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Helping women get access to preventative treatment and family planning services is a moral issue – not a political game. As a son, husband and father, I would never put partisan politics ahead of the health and safety of women.

Well, someone had to say it. We have a whole lot of women here in Nevada who regularly use contraception. Why should they face so many obstacles in accessing it? And why doesn't Heck ever propose putting up the same kinds of obstacles on men accessing Viagra and Cialis?

And what's really funny about Heck going hard-line against birth control, as well as Republicans overall working so hard to antagonize women voters, is that they're not realizing they're losing quite badly on this. Ed Kilgore may ultimately be right about this turning into another "Terry Schiavo moment" of the G-O-TEA overreaching on "culture wars" crap. Again, women regularly use contraception and a number of states, including Nevada, have already passed insurance coverage requirements like the one President Obama will be implementing in the rollout of health care reform.

Steve Benen may have hit the ultimate nail on the head of this.

The first is that the Great Recession wasn't just an economic crisis; it was a disaster that dramatically changed the country's priorities. Going into the 2012 election season, when the public is asked which issues matter most, 2% say immigration, 1% say abortion, 1% say religious values, and 44% say economy/jobs. For a party to ignore this is an invitation to be labeled out of touch.

The second is that Limbaugh's confidence about public attitudes is misplaced. Not only does the American mainstream not want to fight the culture war right now, when pressed, most of the public likes contraception, supports Roe v. Wade, and approves of marriage equality. One could certainly make the case that gun control isn't popular, at least not with key voting constituencies, but since Democrats aren't even trying to change the status quo, it's not much of a campaign issue.

Limbaugh complained on the air yesterday that the Republican establishment "wants no part of" the culture war. There's a good reason for that: GOP leaders can read polls.

And I'll add that I can't think of anywhere else this rings truer than right here in Southern Nevada. Folks here are asking about job openings, home foreclosure prevention, and how to save our middle class. They're not interested in refighting "culture wars" on women's health care decisions and whether to criminalize being gay. If Joe Heck really wants to join his G-O-TEA colleagues & Rush Limbaugh, and declare himself a "culture warrior", then he needs to prepare to lose this next election.

Joe Heck: Destroying America's Trust in Our Economy

Earlier this month, Joe Heck slipped this piece of legislation into THOMAS. It's called the "Restoring America's Faith and Trust Act", and it sounds as "American as apple pie!" I mean, come on, who doesn't like "Restoring America's Faith and Trust"?

Yet beneath that "All American" veneer, we discover something quite frightening. But before we take a closer look at Heck's bill, let's remember something Desert Beacon stated last week. This will really come in handy.

We are currently involved in two military operations, only one of which looks to be winding down in real time. These are expensive now in terms of operational expenses, and will continue to add costs as veterans return and we incur expenses for their medical, educational, and economic needs. Broadcast media reporting generally informs us about the strategy, end-game options, and operations in the field, but rarely explores how much this might be costing us on an annual basis, much less what the total expenses might be in the long run.

We have a tax structure that rewards non-work, i.e. the accumulation of capital gains, taxed at 15% and penalizes real work by taxing it at a higher rate, 35%. The lowest the top bracket has ever been came during the 1988 and 1989 tax years (28%), to be increased to 31% in 1990. It has stood at 35% since 2003. Again, broadcast media lets us know that we are “taxed to death” but rarely provides any historical context or economic analysis. The present system rewards those who play the Wall Street Casino games by taxing their income at 15% while those engaged in what most people would call “work” in the higher paid professions are paying 35%. The broadcast media has also been remiss in not providing the context of tax payments — we are paying the lowest actual taxes since Eisenhower was in the Oval Office.

This is the real heart of the current "debt/deficit 'crisis'". Because the economy is still shaky, the military had been overextended when George W. Bush decided to invade Iraq just a year after starting the Afghanistan war, and Bush actually CUT taxes on the super-rich instead of raising taxes to pay for the wars, we now face this huge budget deficit. Long before teabaggers supposedly started fretting about deficits and debt, their future Republican BFFs in Congress were regularly maxing out the nation's credit card when they refused to raise taxes (or cut spending) to pay for what they wanted.

So is this what Joe Heck's bill addresses? Nope, far from it! Nowhere in Heck's "Restoring America's Faith and Trust Act" does it address the Bush tax rates, war spending, or economic health. Instead, Heck wants to slash federal investment in our people to 2006 levels and fire more public sector workers! Even though we have more miltary veterans in need of VA care, college students in need of Pell Grants, working poor families in need of Medicaid and food stamps, retirees in need of Medicare and Social Security, and unemployed workers in need of unemployment insurance, Heck refuses to acqknowledge this reality and instead has introduced this bill that would plunge our economy into double-dip recession if enacted!

If we were to slash all these programs and more, we would all pay the price of further suffering. Without unemployment insurance, those without work can't survive. Same goes for seniors on Medicare, working poor families on food stamps and Medicaid, students with Pell Grants, and veterans using VA assistance. If they can't even buy food and basic supplies, let alone purchase anything else, our economy would take a massive hit. Oh, and in the longer term the budget deficit would only worsen as tax revenue plunges because of even more people losing their jobs.

Just like Dean Heller's unbalanced BBA nonsense, Joe Heck's try at fiscal kabuki theater would be just as destructive to our economy if implemented. Don't believe me? Look at Europe. Because of the increasingly extreme austerity regimes being imposed from Britain to Spain to Greece and more, economic growth has come to a halt. (And if it weren't for France and Germany and their "big spending ways", the entire Euro-zone would already officially be in recession.)

So why is Joe Heck doing this? Why does he want to risk torpedoing our economy into another (and potentially worse) recession? Well, why not ask him? He has to hear from us that the economy can't handle any more petty political games. The deficit that Americans are worrying about the most is the JOBS deficit, and Heck's "bitter pill" that he wants us to swallow would only hurt us more.