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StumbleDean Heller against big government, but taxpayers bought mailing
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Rep. Dean Heller
In Today's Sun
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Like the anti-big-government protesters over the weekend asking for directions to the Metro public transit system, Republican Rep. Dean Heller’s recent government mailing to his constituents had a bit of accidental irony to it.
Heller’s multi-part homage to small government was, of course, paid for with taxpayer dollars (and shipped via the U.S. Postal Service).
All representatives have franking privileges — the ability to send mail without having to pay for it — even when they’re railing against the very government that licked the stamp.
Heller’s mass mailing on health care, intercepted by Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston on Monday, raised questions about the appropriateness of the bulk drop.
Just how partisan can you be on Uncle Sam’s 44 cents? That has been a point of debate.
Heller included in the package home a bureaucratic flow chart — a popular prop used on the House floor by Republicans to mock the perceived complexity of the Democrats’ proposed health reform legislation.
The use of the chart in such mailings had been debated over the summer by the House Franking Commission, until a decision was reached by both Democrats and Republicans to allow it with a disclaimer that this was a Republican offering.
A spokesman for the commission said Heller’s chart includes the proper disclaimer and was approved.
The rules on franking privileges are as vast as they are gray. There is a full section devoted to prohibited “political and partisan references” in the mailings. It includes this rule of thumb: “Comments critical of policy or legislation should not be partisan, politicized or personalized.”
So it’s all good to call the legislation, as Heller did, a “$1.5 million government takeover of our nation’s health care system”? Apparently so.
Enjoy the light reading. It is another example of government dollars at work.
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I assume someone against big government also cannot drive on public roads?
This entire editorial is based on garbage. Heller doesn't advocate anarchy. Government has it's place. Heller just thinks it has gotten outside the lines. Smaller government advocates don't want the streets torn up, they just don't want someone telling them what time of day they can walk down the sidewalk.
What a hypocrite! So Republicans use the government to pay for mailings bashing "big government"? So why are my tax dollars paying for this?
More trash talk from the leftwing nut press.
Don't pay attention to the trillions of dollars and higher taxes proposed to be spent to create a bigger government but worry about the stamps used for mailing out an alternate view? Left wing nut story is right but what else can you expect from a journalist that makes 20,000 a year hoping to get a government job that he like most are not qualified for?
This story is Bologna. Is this the best Jon Ralston has? Even if your trying to finding something, anything to make Heller look somehow bad, the story is super weak. I herd of trying to make news when you have nothing but come on!
This argument is moronic.
If you don't agree with what Heller did then say so and logically disagree. But don't argue it with such asinine logic.