Carson’s Heller and Amodei explain no votes on shutdown

Carson City’s Sen. Dean Heller and Rep. Mark Amodei were among the Republicans who voted against the measures ending the government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling Wednesday night.

“I wanted to be able to support a deal but this proposal makes no underlying structural changes that will prevent this exact same crisis from happening again in the very near future,” said Heller.

After weeks at impasse, he said, “Ultimately the only solution on which Congress could agree kicks the can down the road and delays the difficult decisions for three short months.”

“Nothing in this legislation changes the real threats to our country’s economy,” said Amodei. “It does provide an earmark for a dam in Kentucky, though,” he said in a jab at Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky who included nearly $3 billion in the shutdown bill to fund that dam.

“It saddens me to see such important matters decided by the political box score instead of what really matters — getting the policy right for the people who are impacted, which, in the case of our economy, (is) federal spending and debt and healthcare.”

He said he will continue to pursue goals including “reining in ruaway federal spending, debt and the harmful aspects of the Affordable Care Act.”

“Considering this legislation does nothing to place our nation on sound fiscal footing or cultivate a growth evonomy that will produce jobs in thel nog term, I cannot support it,” said Heller.

He said the only solution is passing a long-term budget and all spending bills on time.

They were the only two members of Nevada’s congressional delegation to vote against the bills. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spearheaded the efforts that developed the compromise legislation. House Democrats Steven Horsford and Dina Titus both voted for the measures as did Republican Joe Heck who said the healthcare law must be fixed, “but not at the expense of a long term government shutdown.

He called for long term solutions saying “government by crisis is not an effective way to govern.”