Dean Heller among 48 Republicans to change vote on government shutdown extension

By Karoun Demirjian

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 | 5:22 p.m.

WASHINGTON - It’s always interesting to see lawmakers change their minds.

That appears to have happened today during the House’s vote on a short-term continuing resolution, when 48 Republicans who previously backed their party leadership’s short-term proposal to fund the government past its new shutdown date -- this Friday, March 18 -- decided to vote against a similar measure to buy negotiators more time.

Nevada’s Rep. Dean Heller, who earlier today announced his candidacy for the Nevada Senate seat that will open in 2012, was among them.

It’s a unique turnaround for Heller, who only a few weeks ago was one of the outspoken voices of the Republican Party against the Tea Party voices advocating a shutdown and in favor of giving negotiators time to make calculated decisions.

“I don’t think it’s that bad an idea,” Heller told a Las Vegas television station last month regarding Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s proposal to extend the budget for 30 days to buy time to negotiate. “If both sides can't come to an agreement, I think we ought to extend this thing for a couple of weeks so we can continue negotiations. I just don't want to see this government shut down."

In the end, Congress voted for a two-week extension, with $4 billion in cuts.

The current proposal, which the House adopted today -- with the help of 85 Democrats, including Nevada Reps. Shelley Berkley and Joe Heck -- would add an additional three weeks onto the current intermediary period with $6 billion in similar cuts, bringing the grand total of additional time to 35 days, five more than the initial 30-day continuing resolution that Heller appeared to endorse earlier.

But now, Heller appears to have lost patience with the negotiating process.

“The time to address our spending problem is now,” said Heller. “Congress needs to make tough decisions and get serious about curbing government spending. We cannot allow proponents of big government to drag out these budget negotiations.”

Of course, Heller isn't alone in making the switch. So did Sen. John Ensign, Heller's former presumed primary rival. Ensign, who announced his intention to vote against the three-week continuing resolution today, based his decision on similar reasoning: “we cannot run a country based on three-week continuing resolutions,” he said in a statement, which also blamed President Obama for failing to take the lead on proposing spending cuts since he "reluctantly" voted for the last two-week patch, two weeks ago.

The standoff hasn’t shifted much since then. The House is still backing a plan to cut $100 billion from Obama’s initial fiscal 2011 request, while Democrats have countered with an offer of $51 billion. But that’s only about $5 billion below current spending levels.

But Democrats in the House are condemning Republicans’ accusations that Democrats should take the lead, reminding that it’s the House’s duty to start appropriations bills, and that Republicans don’t have their House in enough order to make it prudent for the Democrats to put something new on the table.

“They can’t get agreement in their own party to come up with a counter-offer to the president,” said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, who pointed out that Boehner’s first offer was $72 billion -- closer to the $51 billion that Democrats have put forward “If we make an offer at this point in time, we have no idea what Mr. Boehner can agree to.”