Heller spells out ‘big’ message for U.S. Senate race

Republican U.S. Sen. Dean Heller on Friday blamed "big government, big business and big unions" for America's persistent economic problems, delivering a speech to the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce that sets the stage for his election-year message to Nevada voters.

"Those are the obstacles to economic recovery," Heller said, speaking to a crowd of about 125 business leaders and lawmakers at the Palms resort just off the Strip.

The Senate campaign of U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., responded by portraying Heller as pro-Wall Street and anti-small business days after she had a news conference at a Las Vegas cancer clinic to accuse Heller of trying to limit women's access to birth control and health care.

In an interview, Heller said he expects negative attacks to keep coming from Berkley as the two compete in a close 2012 race that could determine whether Democrats maintain control of the Senate or Republicans take over the upper chamber, as they did the House in the 2010 election.

"Their only tool in this campaign is to go very, very negative," Heller said. "And I think the average Nevadan is going to see right through that. In the next eight months, I'll be talking about my record, and she'll be running away from hers. And that will be the difference in this campaign."

In his speech, Heller criticized President Barack Obama for proposing a budget that would increase the nation's debt by $11 trillion over 10 years, expanding government and increasing U.S. borrowing.

He said it's a shame Congress hasn't agreed on a budget plan for more than 1,000 days because of the ugly partisan divide in Washington. Heller has introduced legislation to cut off the salaries of lawmakers if they don't approve a budget this year.

"The best way is to hit members in the pocketbook because they have not done their jobs," he said.

Heller said big business is a problem because the Obama administration has rewarded "bad decisions" by bailing out banks and the auto industry while small businesses and people suffer.

"Small businesses aren't getting bailed out," Heller said.

Big unions, he said, are blocking cost-cutting education reforms because they're more concerned with protecting teachers' jobs than improving schools.

He said the answer is to provide more choice for parents, including giving them vouchers to help pay for sending children to good private schools. That would increase competition and lower overall education spending, he said.

"You can't reform education until you get rid of the teachers union," Heller said, quoting the late Apple computers founder Steve Jobs.

Democrats criticized Heller's address to the Las Vegas chamber, noting he still hasn't addressed the Latin Chamber of Commerce as promised 50 days ago. The party sent a man dressed in a chicken suit to stand outside the Palms, holding a sign that said: Heller 2 chicken 2 meet with Latin Chamber."

Heller's staff said he was hoping to meet with the Hispanic business leaders Monday, but some chamber members weren't available, and they planned to schedule the meeting for another time.

Otto Merida, president of the Latin chamber, said Heller might address the group's full board of about two dozen members in April instead of its smaller group of a half-dozen executive board members.

"We're trying to work it out," Merida said. "As far as I know, they're OK with that."

Last year, Heller canceled a speech to the Latin Chamber at the last minute after he learned a Democratic operative planned to videotape the event, a move that upset Hispanic community leaders. His staff also objected to the presence at the meeting of a Berkley staff member.

Berkley is scheduled to address the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce at an April 11 breakfast as part of the group's Eggs & Issues series of meetings with elected Nevada leaders.

Heller said he thought it was a good idea for the business community to hear from both sides in the debate over the direction of the country.

"I'm all for fair and balanced," he said.

In fact, Heller said, the problem with Washington is that lawmakers "fight tooth and nail" to gain a political advantage instead of focusing on the 80 percent where the parties agree.

"We argue too much over the 20 percent that we don't agree on," Heller said. "We're too worried about who gets the credit."

Ahead of Heller's speech, Berkley's campaign put out a news release listing bills that he had voted against aimed at providing tax break, tax cuts and loans to small businesses.

"Thankfully, Nevadans will have a clear choice between Dean Heller's pro-Wall Street, anti-middle class agenda and Shelley Berkley's commitment to creating good paying middle class jobs in Nevada," Berkley campaign spokesman Eric Koch said in a statement.

Heller's campaign said the bills in question were poorly crafted and would have raised taxes in some cases, and in others involved "stimuluslike" spending targeted mostly at helping state and local government and not small businesses trying to create private-sector jobs.

"Only seven-term Congresswoman Shelley Berkley would believe tax increases, bailouts and doubling down on failed stimulus programs are going to get Nevadans back to work," Heller campaign spokeswoman Chandler Smith said.

Earlier this week, Heller was on the defensive after Berkley accused him of joining Republicans in Congress by trying to roll back decades of progress in women's health care and birth control.

Republicans, including Heller, who oppose abortion on religious or moral grounds have frequently voted against federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides a range of health services for low-income people, including abortions, cancer screenings and other preventative programs.

Contact reporter Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.
com or 702-387-2919. Follow her on Twitter @lmyerslvrj.