“I don’t want to talk about what we’re not going to agree on.”
– Sen. Dean Heller
I have watched the Dean Heller-Harry Reid interview on "What's Your Point?" twice now. And after reading the transcript, I realized I still missed stuff. Below is a lightly edited version of the transcript with my annotations.
Jeff Gillan: Joining me today is Nevada’s delegation to the U.S. Senate at our table for what we are told is an unprecedented joint interview; Democrat Harry Reid and Republican Dean Heller. Welcome to a very special edition of What’s Your Point. I’m Jeff Gillan. Gentlemen, it is great to have you here. It’s a real honor to have both of you at this table. We love it very much to have you on the program.
Sen. Dean Heller: And this a First Amendment zone, correct?
Jeff: Yes, yeah, this is a first amendment zone. You can say anything you would like on this program. Actually, much to talk about today. We’re going to try to shoehorn as much as we possibly can in this half hour and to help me do that, of course, our friend to the right, Amy Tarkanian.
Amy Tarkanian: Yes, and once again we are so pleased and honored to have you both. We have very little time to get in as much as possible, so right off the bat, Senator Reid; yesterday you called Mr. Bundy and his supporters domestic terrorists. I thought we were trying to calm the situation down, so what did you mean by that?
Senator Reid: Just what I said. (CLASSIC TERSE REID.)
Jeff: So talk a little bit more about that, Senator, in the sense of what triggered the pullout. I mean, you’re obviously privy to intelligence, what was it that they were doing up there that would make you call them domestic terrorists?
Senator Reid: The National Cattleman Association has a wonderful branch here in Nevada. I met with them last week….they pay their taxes, they pay their fees, they follow the law. Bundy doesn’t believe that the American government is valid. He believes the United States is a foreign government. He doesn’t pay his tax and he doesn’t follow the law. (NO IDEA WHY REID KEEPS SAYING BUNDY DOESN’T PAY TAXES, TOO. I THINK HE MAY BE HAVING ROMNEY FLASHBACKS.) He doesn’t pay his fees and if anyone can explain, any figment of their imagination, what happened up there last week was just people whining because somebody was oppressed, 600 people came in armed. (FIRST APOCRYPHAL NUMBER USED.)They had practiced, they had maneuvered. They knew what they were doing. They set up snipers in strategic locations with sniper rifles. They had assault weapons. They had automatic weapons and they boasted about the fact that they put women and children, in fact, one retired sheriff from Arizona boasted that he put women and children so that they would get hit first. (THIS IS TRUE.) So 600 people, if there were ever an example of people who were domestic violent terrorist wannabes, these are the guys and I think that we should call it that way. We have a situation where I think that it’s really….would it be appropriate if Jim Rogers, owner of this station, got behind on his taxes or had a problem with the Federal Communications Commission to station around here when people tried to collect taxes or to do something that was in keeping with the law and surround this place with armed people? (I’D STAND WITH JIM!) Of course not. You would never, knowing that Bundy did what I just said. There are two valid court orders; a permanent injunction. Get the cattle off the land, pay your fees.
Jeff: Senator Heller.
Senator Heller: Yes.
Jeff: Is the Bundy family, are his supporters, are they domestic terrorists?
Senator Heller: Well, I have a very different view.
Senator Reid: Well no one called Bundy a domestic terrorist. I said the people that came however. (THIS IS FALSE. THE PREVIOUS EVENING, AT A PROGRESSIVE LEADERSHIP ALLIANCE OF NEVADA EVENT, REID SAID JUST THAT. I WAS THERE.)
Amy: Okay.
Senator Heller: What Senator Reid may call domestic terrorists, I call patriots. (HERE WE GO!) We have a very different…
Senator Reid: Well, and I said these people think they’re patriots. They’re not. I use that word typically, if they’re patriots, we’re in big trouble.
Senator Heller: Well, it’s a pretty broad brush, pretty broad brush when you have the Boy Scouts there, you have veterans at the event, you have grandparents at the event and these are people that, as long as they’re not promoting violence (AS LONG AS THEY’RE NOT PROMOTING VIOLENCE!) , in my opinion, in my opinion…
Senator Reid: Promoting violence? Sniper rifles. Talk to Sheriff Gillespie. Automatic weapons. That’s grandmothers? That’s Boy Scouts? I hope not, because we’ve got a lot, we’ve got…. the Boy Scouts and whether they can have gay leaders if that’s the case.
Senator Heller: Yeah, but I take more issues with BLM coming in with a paramilitary army, the individuals with snipers and I’m talking to people in groups that were there at the event and they have your own government with sniper lenses on you. It made a lot of people very uncomfortable. (FOLLOW THE LOGIC HERE: HE TAKES MORE ISSUE WITH A COUPLE OF BLM NUMBSKULLS THAN HE DOES WITH A GUY BREAKING THE LAW AND ARMED STATE SOVEREIGNTY FOLKS. SO PROUD.)
Amy: Right, because having the BLM armed, that’s not a normal way to go in and collect money that’s owed to the federal government, so I can understand how scary the situation was for them. (POINT HERE: THEY WERE NOT THERE TO COLLECT MONEY, A CANARD ADVANCED BY MICHELE FIORE AND OTHERS.)
Senator Reid: Well, they weren’t going to collect money, they were going to get the cattle off the land as ordered by two federal courts. (WHOOPS. HE SAID IT, TOO.)
Senator Heller: Yeah, but to march an army in there to do that.
Senator Reid: There was no army. The army was the 600 people.
Senator Heller: To clear off 300,000 acres, come on, 300,000 acres, telling people you have no access to these lands. (WHAT IN GOD’S NAME DOES THIS MEAN? BUNDY HAD ACCESS. HE DIDN’T PAY HIS FEES!)
Senator Reid: That land, that 300,000 acres, federal land, public lands, has been basically decimated by this guy. Now let me just, let’s, we’re here and what I want to talk about is, nice we got into the Bundy stuff, (THIS IS FASCINATING. SEEING HOW HEATED IT WAS GETTING, REID SHIFTED TO MAKE IT A HAPPY OCCASION!) that’s fine, but what Senator Heller and I wanted to do, and we always with the pressure to never expect…..what we wanted to talk about is, it’s easy, Dean and I could spend, not only the half hour you have set aside for us, but three days talking about the things that we disagree on. We just [inaudible]. Let me continue, let me continue. Dean and I disagree on stuff, but we also agree on a lot of stuff and the people watching this program should understand that Dean Heller and Harry Reid are friends. I have admiration for him. He was one of the few people that stood up for fairness in 1998 (THIS IS AWESOME. HELLER AS SOS STOPPED A RECOUNT IN WASHOE COUNTY IN REID’S 1998 RE-ELECTION BID, WHICH INFURIATED JOHN ENSIGN, WHO EVENTUALLY LOST BY 400 VOTES.) in that bitter election we had. He was Secretary of State;….but we agree on lots of stuff. I mean the Travel Promotion Act are the most important laws ever passed here in Washington to help people in Nevada. (YES, THAT WAS CONTROVERSIAL!) We agree on that. He’s a co-sponsor on that and because of him we have seven or eight Republican co-sponsors of that….We agree on what should happen with Internet gaming. (LET’S UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS. IT MEANS THEY BOTH AGREE ALL BUT POKER SHOULD BE BANNED.) We agree on lots of stuff. Dean Heller led the charge with Republicans to have extended unemployment benefits. So I want your viewers to understand that we agree on a lot of stuff. (THEY REALLY DON’T.)
Amy: We’d like to touch on that.
Jeff: We want to get to how you’re working together and all of that, one final question on Bundy if I may. I’m just interested, what happens next? I know that, Senator, you said yesterday that there’s going to be a sort of federal task force in the work to try to…
Senator Reid: I didn’t, here’s what I said. I’ve spoken to Gillespie on a number of occasions, the Sheriff of Clark County. I’ve spoken with the Attorney General, Eric Holder. I’ve spoken to James Comey, head of the FBI. I’ve spoken to the Secretary of the Interior **** and I assume that’s what they’re going to do. I’ve spoken to the U.S. Attorney here, Dan Bogden. It’s obvious that you can’t just walk away from this and we can speculate however you want to speculate, what’s going to happen next. I don’t think it’s going to be tomorrow that something’s going to happen, but something will happen. (EXACTLY NOT RIGHT AWAY BUT SOON.)
Amy: And this has been going on for 20 years with Mr. Bundy not paying his bills. So Senator Heller, what are you doing on top of what Senator Reid is already started?
Senator Heller: Well first of all, I would hope that the two of us together, like I said, we do agree on a lot, that we can agree to have hearings back in Washington, D.C. I want to talk about the fact that the federal government owns 85% of Nevada. That’s where the beginning of all this happens. (HEY, GUESS WHAT, SENATOR? THE FEDS HAVE OWNED 85 PERCENT OF THE STATE SINCE YOU HAVE BEEN IN CONGRESS. )I want to talk about the fact that they had this kind of authority and the ability to bully and to come in with 200 armed men (OH? REALLY?) into a situation like this, I would like to have hearings. I want to find out who’s accountable for this. I hope someone at the BLM holds some accountability for exactly what happened and I fear that there will be no answer to that question, but I want hearings in Washington, D.C. I want exactly what happened and who gave the orders in order to march in like this. (YOU ARE ONLY A U.S. SENATOR, SO YOU MAY NOT UNDERSTAND THIS: THEY ALWAYS ARE ARMED IN SUCH SITUATIONS. WHY DOES IT NOT BOTHER YOU THAT BUNDY BROKE THE LAW AND HIS FRIENDS (EXCUSE ME, PATRIOTS) PUT A LOT OF PEOPLE IN HARM’S WAY?)
Senator Reid: These characters walk around with the Constitution in their pocket. They should read the Nevada Constitution, maybe they haven’t bothered to do that, which was determined long before Bundy showed up in this state and….gives people this land that is public land. That’s the way it is and for people to talk about, we’ve been through the Sagebrush Rebellion. okay? It didn’t work and it’s not going to work now. It’s federal land. Take it or leave it. (HE’S RIGHT.) And we have worked hard, congressional delegation’s been together for a long time, getting lands that are public lands, I’m sorry, federal lands in the private sector. We’ve done lots of that. That’s what **** was all about, auctioning off these federal lands, so Lincoln County at one time was 98-1/2% federal land, because of law that Senator Ensign and I worked together, now that’s not the case. They have a lot more private land. We’ve done that. We’ve done it in ….o I don’t accept, by any stretch of the imagination that this was because of federal lands. He should have worried about that when he started asking….that he could graze his cattle there. You know, he did that originally.
Senator Heller: If I could make a couple quick points.
Jeff: Go ahead.
Senator Heller: First of all, the last legislative session passed Assembly Bill 227 that put together a task force to determine the feasibility of the state taking back their lands and I’m very interested in the results of this particular task force that’s being put together. Demar Dahl is the chair of this commission in this particular task force and I want to see the results of that because I support this effort and so let’s move this thing forward. (YES, BECAUSE THE STATE HAS THE MONEY TO TAKE OVER THESE LANDS. GENIUS!) Keep in mind also, keep in mind also, and I think this is an important statistic, that cattlemen have lost half, in the last 30 years, over half the range land that they’re able to run their cattle on in the last 30 years. (IMPORTANT? NO, IRRELEVANT.)
Senator Reid: The climate change. We have wildfires that have decimated cattle land.
Senator Heller: But I would argue that’s the reason we have these wildfires is because they no longer allow sheep and cattle to graze on these properties. We can disagree. I don’t want to talk about what we’re not going to agree on. (HE JUST SAID THAT. READ THAT SENTENCE AGAIN.)
Senator Reid: But Dean I think it would be a tough thing scientifically for anyone to say that the reason we have these (fires) taking place is because we don’t graze cattle enough. (OR ANYONE WITH ANY COMMON SENSE.)
Senator Heller: I’ll tell you every cattleman here knows that their lifespan of their occupation is short….
Amy: **** how emotional this situation is.
Jeff: I don’t know what you do in the Senate, but permission to go to a commercial break right now if I may. We’re going to go pay some bills, back with Nevada’s Senate Delegation, Dean Heller and Harry Reid. You’re watching What’s Your Point.
Jeff: Welcome back to What’s Your Point; Jeff Gillan and Amy Tarkanian with Nevada’s U.S. Senate Delegation, Dean Heller and Harry Reid. Again, welcome gentlemen.
Senator Heller: Thank you.
Jeff: Great to have you here. I know that…let’s talk about dysfunction in Washington. I mean if you go out there and you talk to people, they are so upset that parties aren’t working together, nothing seems to be getting done in Washington. How do you make Washington work?
Amy: First of all though, I know that you have brought up and would like to talk about things that you do work well with. Now, but getting back to his question, are we at a point where you think that we can no longer govern? It seems that with the House and the Senate, it’s just constant battles?
Senator Reid: [Inaudible]. I think John Boehner has clearly….because he doesn’t let Democrats vote on stuff unless he needs to pass something. He had a conversation with the President day before yesterday. They’re going to do nothing on immigration, although we learned today that they had a conversation…..and said they’re going to do immigration reform this year.
Jeff: Before the election.
Senator Reid: That’s right.
Amy: Said he was hellbent actually.
Senator Reid: I think that, and as we look at what he’s accomplished this year, the speaker instructed Ryan at the Budget Committee to work with the head of the Budget Committee in the Senate for the budget…..I mean because he was told to do it, and as a result of that budget, which was a fair budget. I mean it was fair because, I don’t want to get particular, Republicans don’t want to get particular, but that’s what compromises all that. It was a good budget and after that we passed, for the first time in a long time, a spending bill, which was important because it reinstated the appropriation process and then we, even though we raised the debt 18 times during the Reagan administration, it’s been a knockdown drag out for five years. The speaker determined he didn’t want any part of that and so we have to raise the debt ceiling. So look closely at what’s going on. It’s not great, but it’s better than it has been.
Amy: Do you think because we have midterm elections coming up where the base normally turns out and both sides are maybe pandering more to the bases and that’s why there’s very little compromise?
Senator Reid: Well I hope so, because I think one of the shortcomings we had is the Speaker and my friend the Republican Leader haven’t pandered to their base enough. I think Republicans that are out there are yearning for us to work together. I really do believe that.
Senator Heller: If I can add, I think Senator Reid and I just being here today, working together on this and having a show that invites us to participate, even though we may disagree on a few subjects, I hope it sends the right message. (YES. A MESSAGE THAT FOR 20 MINUTES YOU CAN SIT TOGETHER. BRAVO!) I know there’s some more frustration out there with the American people, but I don’t buy into the fact that we can’t get things done and Senator Reid and I have gotten things done. We’ve worked together on immigration reform. (DIDN’T GET DONE.) We’ve worked together on UI. (NOT DONE.) We’ve worked together on the issues that I think are important to Nevadans, I think are important to the American people and I’ll continue to work together on ideas that we do agree on. So we can get things done. I do believe we can get things done. I do get frustrated that it goes over to the House of Representatives and legislation that we have passed and worked very hard on and it doesn’t see the light of day, but I’ll continue to work with the House to try to get that work done. (READ THIS ENTIRE SOUND BITE AGAIN, FOLKS. VACUOUS AS ANYTHING YOU WILL READ.)
Amy: I mean how do the two of you get things [inaudible]?
Senator Reid: One of the things I think that people don’t comprehend is Dean and I, we’re busy, we do our stuff, you know, there are things that we have to do as senators. Much of the good work done by Senate delegation is done with our staff and we have a staff that gets along extremely well. It didn’t start out perfect, but it’s gotten really good. We’ve all really gotten to know each other and I think it’s really become quite good. Our Chiefs of Staff, they communicate all the time. They’re two unmatched pairs, totally different people, but they get along extremely well. (I FORGET IF THERE WAS A LAUGH TRACK.)
Senator Heller: I would agree with that.
Senator Reid: They get along well and they’re helping us work through some of these issues.
Senator Heller: I find it easier to negotiate with Harry than I do his staff. Staff are tough, they’re really tough and you know, they look after their members.
Jeff: Let’s talk about one particular piece of legislation, the Unemployment Insurance Extension which passed bipartisan through the Senate. You know, things do go to the house to die apparently is what it’s turning out to be. What are you, as a republican, doing to try to push things along in the republican controlled House? I mean are you having conversations with John Boehner, specifically on the UI, I mean you’ve got Republicans over there going, “You don’t need it.” I mean tell the unemployed people to just get off their butts.
Amy: And I know that you were in favor of it because we do have one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.
Senator Heller: That’s correct.
Amy: So I understand that we needed to do that temporarily, but there was a large number of the Republican base that was very angry with your vote going that way and making sure that there are ways to make the necessary cuts, that we’re not constantly spending. You know, when are we these extensions going to end because if we keep revisiting this every five, six months and the cycle just keeps going, so that’s, unfortunately, the Republicans not being too happy with your move.
Senator Heller: That’s fine, yeah, that extension is important for citizens here in the state of Nevada. Keep in mind, these are people that worked hard who are looking for work, who have lost their job. It’s not their fault. Should they have to lose their home or not be able to put food on their table? Unemployment insurance extensions are very important for the state of Nevada. Sure, there are more things that I would have liked to see in the bill. I’d have liked to have seen more reforms, but as Senator Reid said, there are negotiations and you have to come to a compromise and I’m sure he didn’t get everything he wanted nor did I get everything I wanted, but the key is to go over to the House of Representatives. Our staffs are talking with the Speaker’s staff. We’ll put together a meeting. We couldn’t get it done before the break, which I was disappointed in, but…(HE DID NOT ADDRESS THE VERY GOOD QUESTION ABOUT HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU JUST KEEP EXTENDING IT AND FOR HOW LONG.)
Jeff: Did you think something's going to happen in the House on this?
Senator Heller: Well Pete Sessions talked about enveloping it into a piece of legislation, so there’s actually…. is very positive and I’m certainly hoping it will move forward.
Senator Reid: Let me say one thing that might be interesting to the viewing audience. Now we kick around John Boehner often, but I have a wonderful relationship with him. (POLYGRAPH, PLEASE.) He’s the nicest guy. I mean he is such a nice man and every meeting that I have with him takes place in his office, you know, kind of protocol to go back and forth, but we decided to do it that way because John Boehner smokes and he smokes a lot. I don’t want him smoking in my office so every meeting we’ve had has been in his office and usually he smokes a cigarette about every 10 minutes, but I’m glad he’s kind of able to smoke. It keeps him pacified and we’ve been able to actually get some things worked out and if we don’t work things out we don’t try to abuse each other. (THIS IS JUST A CLASSIC HARRY REID FEW SENTENCES.)
Jeff: I’d like to move on right now. Again, we’re trying to shoehorn as much as we can into this half hour. Let’s talk about the Affordable Care Act if we can gentlemen. Yesterday the President said that 8 million people have now signed up under Obamacare. A quote from the President, “The bottom line is this thing is working,” is what Barack Obama said. I don’t want to debate talking points here, but let’s look forward on this. Senator Heller, if you had the chance, what would you repeal. I mean what part of the Affordable Care Act isn’t working for you. If you could fix it, tweak it, change it, what would you do with it?
Amy: Or are you just open to full repeal like many Republicans are?
Senator Heller: Well, it would have to be replaced and I’ve introduced legislation. Everyone talks about tort reform. I think tort reform is a critically important component. (PAVLOV, ARE YOU HERE?) To have left that out, that particular provision, that was nothing but a boost to the trial lawyers and the support that they’ve received over the years on the other side, but those are the kind of changes that I would like to have seen in this particular piece of legislation. There has to be more competition, but this individual mandate, he said 8 million people. Keep in mind, four years ago he had 30 million people that were uninsured. We have 30 million people today that are uninsured and yet he keeps talking about this 8 million number being a success story. I don’t buy it. I think it’s all smoke and mirrors. (BECAUSE I CAN SAY WHATEVER I WANT WITH NO EVIDENCE!)
Senator Reid: The Affordable Care Act has tort reform in it. We have a pilot project that was pushed…..from Oregon and it’s in process right now. In addition to that, we put in that bill $11 billion for community health centers. They are wonderful. They are great and we have one that’s operating in Nevada already that’s doing extremely well and you cannot sue those operations or those doctors. Talk about perks huh? That’s $11 billion of no lawsuits.
Amy: So then, in your eyes, is this plan perfect as is or do you think there still needs to be some tweaking?
Senator Reid: No, it’s not even close to being perfect and no one’s ever said it is. I worked hard on getting this passed as most everyone knows and if we’d had just a little bit of cooperation from the Republicans it would have been a better bill. But we didn’t, we had to pass it ourselves and we’ve improved the bill with legislation that the republicans have voted for, a number of things we’ve done, 1099’s to help small businesses, anyway, we’ve done probably 15 things legislatively to improve it.
Amy: Right.
Senator Reid: Let’s not be [inaudible] horrible, but as of a week ago, a month ago, six weeks ago, people didn’t have to wait for a second, literally a second you could get on and sign up for Obamacare. Right now we have 8 million people, the numbers as to young people are really good. Not only that, we have 3 million additional people that are on there because of their parent’s health insurance. We have probably 7 million people who are there because of Medicaid and we have a number of governors who are refusing to help 5 million people, to allow them to do that. It doesn’t cost the states a penny to allow them on that, to be part of Medicaid, but they’ve done it for ideological reasons.
Amy: But outside of that, within those numbers, isn’t there about 5,000 of those who had actually lost their insurance due to Obamacare and then had to go sign up under Obamacare? So now they have the plan they didn’t necessarily want in the first place, from what I understand.
Senator Reid: Yeah, I’m sure there are some people who think they liked their insurance that they had before, but if they looked at it very closely, I’m not too sure that’s true. Now they should have been able to keep it. I acknowledge that, but most people who lost their insurance now have better insurance.
Jeff: Let me just jump in here, because I think we have to go to another break here, but let me ask you Senator Heller, because republicans have repeatedly….T he House to change it, repeal it, whatever…
Senator Heller: Sure.
Senator Reid: 59.
Jeff: 59.
Amy: Who’s counting?
Jeff: As a Republican, do you accept the Affordable Care Act? Is it here to stay? Is that the long point?
Senator Heller: It is for the next two years, as long as President Obama is the President of the United States, but I’d certainly hope that if Republicans take a majority of the Senate, we get a Republican President, we’ll go back to some reality here and get a health care bill that actually works for the American people, get some competition in this process, let’s get some tort reform in this process, let’s move this process forward. Keep in mind that 8 million number is all smoke and mirrors. How many of them have actually paid? No one knows the answer. (ACTUALLY SOMEONE PROBABLY DOES.) Could you imagine one of the car dealers down here saying, “Hey, we got 8 million cars we just sold, but by the way, I can’t tell you how many people actually paid for them.” I mean, you’d be fired on the spot. Why is this going on in Washington, D.C.
Jeff: We have to take a break and as the guests, you know, on Friday you get to make the last point when we come back, so you won’t go anywhere, we won’t go anywhere and hopefully you won’t either.
Welcome back, Jeff Gillan with Amy Tarkanian, Dean Heller, Harry Reid. Again, good to have you here. It’s time for the last point. Senator Heller, you go first.
Senator Heller: First of all Jeff and Amy, thank you very much for having us here on the show and not interrupting us every five seconds (THIS IS A THINLY VEILED SHOT AT YOURS TRULY, UP TO THE USUAL HELLER CLEVERNESS LEVEL. THE TRUTH: IT ISN’T BEING INTERRUPTED THAT HE MINDS. REID INTERRUPTED HIM PLENTY. IT’S ACTUALLY ANSWERING HARD QUESTIONS AND FOLLOW-UPS.) as we went through this conversation, but needless to say, the reason that we’re here today, working with Senator Reid, I feel I have an obligation. Whoever the voters send to Washington, D.C., Harry and I will work well together and I hope we’re sending a message, not only to all Nevadans but across this country that two people that you can tell differ on opinions, can work well together and get things done for their constituents. (I’M A BIT LACHRYMOSE. PLEASE EXCUSE ME.)
Jeff: Senator Reid?
Senator Reid: I’ve appreciated the show today and I think that we’ve discussed some issues that are important to the people in the State of Nevada. There are lots more issues and I think we need more forums like this so people can understand what’s going on. What we have now with the….. with the little bits and pieces of stuff that much of the time don’t have a lot of foundation is what’s directed a lot of the news coverage and we need more in-depth coverage like this so I’m glad that the owner of this station allows programs like this to continue. (MY GOODNESS. SHAMELESS.)
Amy: Well, once again I’m honored to have the two of you and I have learned a lot just by listening to the both of you today, so I can’t thank you enough.
Senator Heller: Thank you Amy.
Jeff: We’d just like to commit that you come back and you do this every Friday with us, so if we could do that we’d be pretty good. We think the ratings would be fantastic. No, we hope you can come back again. You always have an open invitation for What’s Your Point and we want to thank you again real quick.
Senator Reid: I’ve often wondered, what is your point?
Jeff: Well, we have many points here actually. We have many points on this program. Again gentlemen, thanks. It’s been a real pleasure. And thank you. If you have a comment, I’m sure you will, our email address; wyp@mynews3.com. I’m Jeff Gillan. Thank you very much for a very good Friday. Have a great weekend. We’ll see you next week.
“I don’t want to talk about what we’re not going to agree on.”
– Sen. Dean Heller
I have watched the Dean Heller-Harry Reid interview on "What's Your Point?" twice now. And after reading the transcript, I realized I still missed stuff. Below is a lightly edited version of the transcript with my annotations.
Jeff Gillan: Joining me today is Nevada’s delegation to the U.S. Senate at our table for what we are told is an unprecedented joint interview; Democrat Harry Reid and Republican Dean Heller. Welcome to a very special edition of What’s Your Point. I’m Jeff Gillan. Gentlemen, it is great to have you here. It’s a real honor to have both of you at this table. We love it very much to have you on the program.
Sen. Dean Heller: And this a First Amendment zone, correct?
Jeff: Yes, yeah, this is a first amendment zone. You can say anything you would like on this program. Actually, much to talk about today. We’re going to try to shoehorn as much as we possibly can in this half hour and to help me do that, of course, our friend to the right, Amy Tarkanian.
Amy Tarkanian: Yes, and once again we are so pleased and honored to have you both. We have very little time to get in as much as possible, so right off the bat, Senator Reid; yesterday you called Mr. Bundy and his supporters domestic terrorists. I thought we were trying to calm the situation down, so what did you mean by that?
Senator Reid: Just what I said. (CLASSIC TERSE REID.)
Jeff: So talk a little bit more about that, Senator, in the sense of what triggered the pullout. I mean, you’re obviously privy to intelligence, what was it that they were doing up there that would make you call them domestic terrorists?
Senator Reid: The National Cattleman Association has a wonderful branch here in Nevada. I met with them last week….they pay their taxes, they pay their fees, they follow the law. Bundy doesn’t believe that the American government is valid. He believes the United States is a foreign government. He doesn’t pay his tax and he doesn’t follow the law. (NO IDEA WHY REID KEEPS SAYING BUNDY DOESN’T PAY TAXES, TOO. I THINK HE MAY BE HAVING ROMNEY FLASHBACKS.) He doesn’t pay his fees and if anyone can explain, any figment of their imagination, what happened up there last week was just people whining because somebody was oppressed, 600 people came in armed. (FIRST APOCRYPHAL NUMBER USED.)They had practiced, they had maneuvered. They knew what they were doing. They set up snipers in strategic locations with sniper rifles. They had assault weapons. They had automatic weapons and they boasted about the fact that they put women and children, in fact, one retired sheriff from Arizona boasted that he put women and children so that they would get hit first. (THIS IS TRUE.) So 600 people, if there were ever an example of people who were domestic violent terrorist wannabes, these are the guys and I think that we should call it that way. We have a situation where I think that it’s really….would it be appropriate if Jim Rogers, owner of this station, got behind on his taxes or had a problem with the Federal Communications Commission to station around here when people tried to collect taxes or to do something that was in keeping with the law and surround this place with armed people? (I’D STAND WITH JIM!) Of course not. You would never, knowing that Bundy did what I just said. There are two valid court orders; a permanent injunction. Get the cattle off the land, pay your fees.
Jeff: Senator Heller.
Senator Heller: Yes.
Jeff: Is the Bundy family, are his supporters, are they domestic terrorists?
Senator Heller: Well, I have a very different view.
Senator Reid: Well no one called Bundy a domestic terrorist. I said the people that came however. (THIS IS FALSE. THE PREVIOUS EVENING, AT A PROGRESSIVE LEADERSHIP ALLIANCE OF NEVADA EVENT, REID SAID JUST THAT. I WAS THERE.)
Amy: Okay.
Senator Heller: What Senator Reid may call domestic terrorists, I call patriots. (HERE WE GO!) We have a very different…
Senator Reid: Well, and I said these people think they’re patriots. They’re not. I use that word typically, if they’re patriots, we’re in big trouble.
Senator Heller: Well, it’s a pretty broad brush, pretty broad brush when you have the Boy Scouts there, you have veterans at the event, you have grandparents at the event and these are people that, as long as they’re not promoting violence (AS LONG AS THEY’RE NOT PROMOTING VIOLENCE!) , in my opinion, in my opinion…
Senator Reid: Promoting violence? Sniper rifles. Talk to Sheriff Gillespie. Automatic weapons. That’s grandmothers? That’s Boy Scouts? I hope not, because we’ve got a lot, we’ve got…. the Boy Scouts and whether they can have gay leaders if that’s the case.
Senator Heller: Yeah, but I take more issues with BLM coming in with a paramilitary army, the individuals with snipers and I’m talking to people in groups that were there at the event and they have your own government with sniper lenses on you. It made a lot of people very uncomfortable. (FOLLOW THE LOGIC HERE: HE TAKES MORE ISSUE WITH A COUPLE OF BLM NUMBSKULLS THAN HE DOES WITH A GUY BREAKING THE LAW AND ARMED STATE SOVEREIGNTY FOLKS. SO PROUD.)
Amy: Right, because having the BLM armed, that’s not a normal way to go in and collect money that’s owed to the federal government, so I can understand how scary the situation was for them. (POINT HERE: THEY WERE NOT THERE TO COLLECT MONEY, A CANARD ADVANCED BY MICHELE FIORE AND OTHERS.)
Senator Reid: Well, they weren’t going to collect money, they were going to get the cattle off the land as ordered by two federal courts. (WHOOPS. HE SAID IT, TOO.)
Senator Heller: Yeah, but to march an army in there to do that.
Senator Reid: There was no army. The army was the 600 people.
Senator Heller: To clear off 300,000 acres, come on, 300,000 acres, telling people you have no access to these lands. (WHAT IN GOD’S NAME DOES THIS MEAN? BUNDY HAD ACCESS. HE DIDN’T PAY HIS FEES!)
Senator Reid: That land, that 300,000 acres, federal land, public lands, has been basically decimated by this guy. Now let me just, let’s, we’re here and what I want to talk about is, nice we got into the Bundy stuff, (THIS IS FASCINATING. SEEING HOW HEATED IT WAS GETTING, REID SHIFTED TO MAKE IT A HAPPY OCCASION!) that’s fine, but what Senator Heller and I wanted to do, and we always with the pressure to never expect…..what we wanted to talk about is, it’s easy, Dean and I could spend, not only the half hour you have set aside for us, but three days talking about the things that we disagree on. We just [inaudible]. Let me continue, let me continue. Dean and I disagree on stuff, but we also agree on a lot of stuff and the people watching this program should understand that Dean Heller and Harry Reid are friends. I have admiration for him. He was one of the few people that stood up for fairness in 1998 (THIS IS AWESOME. HELLER AS SOS STOPPED A RECOUNT IN WASHOE COUNTY IN REID’S 1998 RE-ELECTION BID, WHICH INFURIATED JOHN ENSIGN, WHO EVENTUALLY LOST BY 400 VOTES.) in that bitter election we had. He was Secretary of State;….but we agree on lots of stuff. I mean the Travel Promotion Act are the most important laws ever passed here in Washington to help people in Nevada. (YES, THAT WAS CONTROVERSIAL!) We agree on that. He’s a co-sponsor on that and because of him we have seven or eight Republican co-sponsors of that….We agree on what should happen with Internet gaming. (LET’S UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS. IT MEANS THEY BOTH AGREE ALL BUT POKER SHOULD BE BANNED.) We agree on lots of stuff. Dean Heller led the charge with Republicans to have extended unemployment benefits. So I want your viewers to understand that we agree on a lot of stuff. (THEY REALLY DON’T.)
Amy: We’d like to touch on that.
Jeff: We want to get to how you’re working together and all of that, one final question on Bundy if I may. I’m just interested, what happens next? I know that, Senator, you said yesterday that there’s going to be a sort of federal task force in the work to try to…
Senator Reid: I didn’t, here’s what I said. I’ve spoken to Gillespie on a number of occasions, the Sheriff of Clark County. I’ve spoken with the Attorney General, Eric Holder. I’ve spoken to James Comey, head of the FBI. I’ve spoken to the Secretary of the Interior **** and I assume that’s what they’re going to do. I’ve spoken to the U.S. Attorney here, Dan Bogden. It’s obvious that you can’t just walk away from this and we can speculate however you want to speculate, what’s going to happen next. I don’t think it’s going to be tomorrow that something’s going to happen, but something will happen. (EXACTLY NOT RIGHT AWAY BUT SOON.)
Amy: And this has been going on for 20 years with Mr. Bundy not paying his bills. So Senator Heller, what are you doing on top of what Senator Reid is already started?
Senator Heller: Well first of all, I would hope that the two of us together, like I said, we do agree on a lot, that we can agree to have hearings back in Washington, D.C. I want to talk about the fact that the federal government owns 85% of Nevada. That’s where the beginning of all this happens. (HEY, GUESS WHAT, SENATOR? THE FEDS HAVE OWNED 85 PERCENT OF THE STATE SINCE YOU HAVE BEEN IN CONGRESS. )I want to talk about the fact that they had this kind of authority and the ability to bully and to come in with 200 armed men (OH? REALLY?) into a situation like this, I would like to have hearings. I want to find out who’s accountable for this. I hope someone at the BLM holds some accountability for exactly what happened and I fear that there will be no answer to that question, but I want hearings in Washington, D.C. I want exactly what happened and who gave the orders in order to march in like this. (YOU ARE ONLY A U.S. SENATOR, SO YOU MAY NOT UNDERSTAND THIS: THEY ALWAYS ARE ARMED IN SUCH SITUATIONS. WHY DOES IT NOT BOTHER YOU THAT BUNDY BROKE THE LAW AND HIS FRIENDS (EXCUSE ME, PATRIOTS) PUT A LOT OF PEOPLE IN HARM’S WAY?)
Senator Reid: These characters walk around with the Constitution in their pocket. They should read the Nevada Constitution, maybe they haven’t bothered to do that, which was determined long before Bundy showed up in this state and….gives people this land that is public land. That’s the way it is and for people to talk about, we’ve been through the Sagebrush Rebellion. okay? It didn’t work and it’s not going to work now. It’s federal land. Take it or leave it. (HE’S RIGHT.) And we have worked hard, congressional delegation’s been together for a long time, getting lands that are public lands, I’m sorry, federal lands in the private sector. We’ve done lots of that. That’s what **** was all about, auctioning off these federal lands, so Lincoln County at one time was 98-1/2% federal land, because of law that Senator Ensign and I worked together, now that’s not the case. They have a lot more private land. We’ve done that. We’ve done it in ….o I don’t accept, by any stretch of the imagination that this was because of federal lands. He should have worried about that when he started asking….that he could graze his cattle there. You know, he did that originally.
Senator Heller: If I could make a couple quick points.
Jeff: Go ahead.
Senator Heller: First of all, the last legislative session passed Assembly Bill 227 that put together a task force to determine the feasibility of the state taking back their lands and I’m very interested in the results of this particular task force that’s being put together. Demar Dahl is the chair of this commission in this particular task force and I want to see the results of that because I support this effort and so let’s move this thing forward. (YES, BECAUSE THE STATE HAS THE MONEY TO TAKE OVER THESE LANDS. GENIUS!) Keep in mind also, keep in mind also, and I think this is an important statistic, that cattlemen have lost half, in the last 30 years, over half the range land that they’re able to run their cattle on in the last 30 years. (IMPORTANT? NO, IRRELEVANT.)
Senator Reid: The climate change. We have wildfires that have decimated cattle land.
Senator Heller: But I would argue that’s the reason we have these wildfires is because they no longer allow sheep and cattle to graze on these properties. We can disagree. I don’t want to talk about what we’re not going to agree on. (HE JUST SAID THAT. READ THAT SENTENCE AGAIN.)
Senator Reid: But Dean I think it would be a tough thing scientifically for anyone to say that the reason we have these (fires) taking place is because we don’t graze cattle enough. (OR ANYONE WITH ANY COMMON SENSE.)
Senator Heller: I’ll tell you every cattleman here knows that their lifespan of their occupation is short….
Amy: **** how emotional this situation is.
Jeff: I don’t know what you do in the Senate, but permission to go to a commercial break right now if I may. We’re going to go pay some bills, back with Nevada’s Senate Delegation, Dean Heller and Harry Reid. You’re watching What’s Your Point.
Jeff: Welcome back to What’s Your Point; Jeff Gillan and Amy Tarkanian with Nevada’s U.S. Senate Delegation, Dean Heller and Harry Reid. Again, welcome gentlemen.
Senator Heller: Thank you.
Jeff: Great to have you here. I know that…let’s talk about dysfunction in Washington. I mean if you go out there and you talk to people, they are so upset that parties aren’t working together, nothing seems to be getting done in Washington. How do you make Washington work?
Amy: First of all though, I know that you have brought up and would like to talk about things that you do work well with. Now, but getting back to his question, are we at a point where you think that we can no longer govern? It seems that with the House and the Senate, it’s just constant battles?
Senator Reid: [Inaudible]. I think John Boehner has clearly….because he doesn’t let Democrats vote on stuff unless he needs to pass something. He had a conversation with the President day before yesterday. They’re going to do nothing on immigration, although we learned today that they had a conversation…..and said they’re going to do immigration reform this year.
Jeff: Before the election.
Senator Reid: That’s right.
Amy: Said he was hellbent actually.
Senator Reid: I think that, and as we look at what he’s accomplished this year, the speaker instructed Ryan at the Budget Committee to work with the head of the Budget Committee in the Senate for the budget…..I mean because he was told to do it, and as a result of that budget, which was a fair budget. I mean it was fair because, I don’t want to get particular, Republicans don’t want to get particular, but that’s what compromises all that. It was a good budget and after that we passed, for the first time in a long time, a spending bill, which was important because it reinstated the appropriation process and then we, even though we raised the debt 18 times during the Reagan administration, it’s been a knockdown drag out for five years. The speaker determined he didn’t want any part of that and so we have to raise the debt ceiling. So look closely at what’s going on. It’s not great, but it’s better than it has been.
Amy: Do you think because we have midterm elections coming up where the base normally turns out and both sides are maybe pandering more to the bases and that’s why there’s very little compromise?
Senator Reid: Well I hope so, because I think one of the shortcomings we had is the Speaker and my friend the Republican Leader haven’t pandered to their base enough. I think Republicans that are out there are yearning for us to work together. I really do believe that.
Senator Heller: If I can add, I think Senator Reid and I just being here today, working together on this and having a show that invites us to participate, even though we may disagree on a few subjects, I hope it sends the right message. (YES. A MESSAGE THAT FOR 20 MINUTES YOU CAN SIT TOGETHER. BRAVO!) I know there’s some more frustration out there with the American people, but I don’t buy into the fact that we can’t get things done and Senator Reid and I have gotten things done. We’ve worked together on immigration reform. (DIDN’T GET DONE.) We’ve worked together on UI. (NOT DONE.) We’ve worked together on the issues that I think are important to Nevadans, I think are important to the American people and I’ll continue to work together on ideas that we do agree on. So we can get things done. I do believe we can get things done. I do get frustrated that it goes over to the House of Representatives and legislation that we have passed and worked very hard on and it doesn’t see the light of day, but I’ll continue to work with the House to try to get that work done. (READ THIS ENTIRE SOUND BITE AGAIN, FOLKS. VACUOUS AS ANYTHING YOU WILL READ.)
Amy: I mean how do the two of you get things [inaudible]?
Senator Reid: One of the things I think that people don’t comprehend is Dean and I, we’re busy, we do our stuff, you know, there are things that we have to do as senators. Much of the good work done by Senate delegation is done with our staff and we have a staff that gets along extremely well. It didn’t start out perfect, but it’s gotten really good. We’ve all really gotten to know each other and I think it’s really become quite good. Our Chiefs of Staff, they communicate all the time. They’re two unmatched pairs, totally different people, but they get along extremely well. (I FORGET IF THERE WAS A LAUGH TRACK.)
Senator Heller: I would agree with that.
Senator Reid: They get along well and they’re helping us work through some of these issues.
Senator Heller: I find it easier to negotiate with Harry than I do his staff. Staff are tough, they’re really tough and you know, they look after their members.
Jeff: Let’s talk about one particular piece of legislation, the Unemployment Insurance Extension which passed bipartisan through the Senate. You know, things do go to the house to die apparently is what it’s turning out to be. What are you, as a republican, doing to try to push things along in the republican controlled House? I mean are you having conversations with John Boehner, specifically on the UI, I mean you’ve got Republicans over there going, “You don’t need it.” I mean tell the unemployed people to just get off their butts.
Amy: And I know that you were in favor of it because we do have one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.
Senator Heller: That’s correct.
Amy: So I understand that we needed to do that temporarily, but there was a large number of the Republican base that was very angry with your vote going that way and making sure that there are ways to make the necessary cuts, that we’re not constantly spending. You know, when are we these extensions going to end because if we keep revisiting this every five, six months and the cycle just keeps going, so that’s, unfortunately, the Republicans not being too happy with your move.
Senator Heller: That’s fine, yeah, that extension is important for citizens here in the state of Nevada. Keep in mind, these are people that worked hard who are looking for work, who have lost their job. It’s not their fault. Should they have to lose their home or not be able to put food on their table? Unemployment insurance extensions are very important for the state of Nevada. Sure, there are more things that I would have liked to see in the bill. I’d have liked to have seen more reforms, but as Senator Reid said, there are negotiations and you have to come to a compromise and I’m sure he didn’t get everything he wanted nor did I get everything I wanted, but the key is to go over to the House of Representatives. Our staffs are talking with the Speaker’s staff. We’ll put together a meeting. We couldn’t get it done before the break, which I was disappointed in, but…(HE DID NOT ADDRESS THE VERY GOOD QUESTION ABOUT HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU JUST KEEP EXTENDING IT AND FOR HOW LONG.)
Jeff: Did you think something's going to happen in the House on this?
Senator Heller: Well Pete Sessions talked about enveloping it into a piece of legislation, so there’s actually…. is very positive and I’m certainly hoping it will move forward.
Senator Reid: Let me say one thing that might be interesting to the viewing audience. Now we kick around John Boehner often, but I have a wonderful relationship with him. (POLYGRAPH, PLEASE.) He’s the nicest guy. I mean he is such a nice man and every meeting that I have with him takes place in his office, you know, kind of protocol to go back and forth, but we decided to do it that way because John Boehner smokes and he smokes a lot. I don’t want him smoking in my office so every meeting we’ve had has been in his office and usually he smokes a cigarette about every 10 minutes, but I’m glad he’s kind of able to smoke. It keeps him pacified and we’ve been able to actually get some things worked out and if we don’t work things out we don’t try to abuse each other. (THIS IS JUST A CLASSIC HARRY REID FEW SENTENCES.)
Jeff: I’d like to move on right now. Again, we’re trying to shoehorn as much as we can into this half hour. Let’s talk about the Affordable Care Act if we can gentlemen. Yesterday the President said that 8 million people have now signed up under Obamacare. A quote from the President, “The bottom line is this thing is working,” is what Barack Obama said. I don’t want to debate talking points here, but let’s look forward on this. Senator Heller, if you had the chance, what would you repeal. I mean what part of the Affordable Care Act isn’t working for you. If you could fix it, tweak it, change it, what would you do with it?
Amy: Or are you just open to full repeal like many Republicans are?
Senator Heller: Well, it would have to be replaced and I’ve introduced legislation. Everyone talks about tort reform. I think tort reform is a critically important component. (PAVLOV, ARE YOU HERE?) To have left that out, that particular provision, that was nothing but a boost to the trial lawyers and the support that they’ve received over the years on the other side, but those are the kind of changes that I would like to have seen in this particular piece of legislation. There has to be more competition, but this individual mandate, he said 8 million people. Keep in mind, four years ago he had 30 million people that were uninsured. We have 30 million people today that are uninsured and yet he keeps talking about this 8 million number being a success story. I don’t buy it. I think it’s all smoke and mirrors. (BECAUSE I CAN SAY WHATEVER I WANT WITH NO EVIDENCE!)
Senator Reid: The Affordable Care Act has tort reform in it. We have a pilot project that was pushed…..from Oregon and it’s in process right now. In addition to that, we put in that bill $11 billion for community health centers. They are wonderful. They are great and we have one that’s operating in Nevada already that’s doing extremely well and you cannot sue those operations or those doctors. Talk about perks huh? That’s $11 billion of no lawsuits.
Amy: So then, in your eyes, is this plan perfect as is or do you think there still needs to be some tweaking?
Senator Reid: No, it’s not even close to being perfect and no one’s ever said it is. I worked hard on getting this passed as most everyone knows and if we’d had just a little bit of cooperation from the Republicans it would have been a better bill. But we didn’t, we had to pass it ourselves and we’ve improved the bill with legislation that the republicans have voted for, a number of things we’ve done, 1099’s to help small businesses, anyway, we’ve done probably 15 things legislatively to improve it.
Amy: Right.
Senator Reid: Let’s not be [inaudible] horrible, but as of a week ago, a month ago, six weeks ago, people didn’t have to wait for a second, literally a second you could get on and sign up for Obamacare. Right now we have 8 million people, the numbers as to young people are really good. Not only that, we have 3 million additional people that are on there because of their parent’s health insurance. We have probably 7 million people who are there because of Medicaid and we have a number of governors who are refusing to help 5 million people, to allow them to do that. It doesn’t cost the states a penny to allow them on that, to be part of Medicaid, but they’ve done it for ideological reasons.
Amy: But outside of that, within those numbers, isn’t there about 5,000 of those who had actually lost their insurance due to Obamacare and then had to go sign up under Obamacare? So now they have the plan they didn’t necessarily want in the first place, from what I understand.
Senator Reid: Yeah, I’m sure there are some people who think they liked their insurance that they had before, but if they looked at it very closely, I’m not too sure that’s true. Now they should have been able to keep it. I acknowledge that, but most people who lost their insurance now have better insurance.
Jeff: Let me just jump in here, because I think we have to go to another break here, but let me ask you Senator Heller, because republicans have repeatedly….T he House to change it, repeal it, whatever…
Senator Heller: Sure.
Senator Reid: 59.
Jeff: 59.
Amy: Who’s counting?
Jeff: As a Republican, do you accept the Affordable Care Act? Is it here to stay? Is that the long point?
Senator Heller: It is for the next two years, as long as President Obama is the President of the United States, but I’d certainly hope that if Republicans take a majority of the Senate, we get a Republican President, we’ll go back to some reality here and get a health care bill that actually works for the American people, get some competition in this process, let’s get some tort reform in this process, let’s move this process forward. Keep in mind that 8 million number is all smoke and mirrors. How many of them have actually paid? No one knows the answer. (ACTUALLY SOMEONE PROBABLY DOES.) Could you imagine one of the car dealers down here saying, “Hey, we got 8 million cars we just sold, but by the way, I can’t tell you how many people actually paid for them.” I mean, you’d be fired on the spot. Why is this going on in Washington, D.C.
Jeff: We have to take a break and as the guests, you know, on Friday you get to make the last point when we come back, so you won’t go anywhere, we won’t go anywhere and hopefully you won’t either.
Welcome back, Jeff Gillan with Amy Tarkanian, Dean Heller, Harry Reid. Again, good to have you here. It’s time for the last point. Senator Heller, you go first.
Senator Heller: First of all Jeff and Amy, thank you very much for having us here on the show and not interrupting us every five seconds (THIS IS A THINLY VEILED SHOT AT YOURS TRULY, UP TO THE USUAL HELLER CLEVERNESS LEVEL. THE TRUTH: IT ISN’T BEING INTERRUPTED THAT HE MINDS. REID INTERRUPTED HIM PLENTY. IT’S ACTUALLY ANSWERING HARD QUESTIONS AND FOLLOW-UPS.) as we went through this conversation, but needless to say, the reason that we’re here today, working with Senator Reid, I feel I have an obligation. Whoever the voters send to Washington, D.C., Harry and I will work well together and I hope we’re sending a message, not only to all Nevadans but across this country that two people that you can tell differ on opinions, can work well together and get things done for their constituents. (I’M A BIT LACHRYMOSE. PLEASE EXCUSE ME.)
Jeff: Senator Reid?
Senator Reid: I’ve appreciated the show today and I think that we’ve discussed some issues that are important to the people in the State of Nevada. There are lots more issues and I think we need more forums like this so people can understand what’s going on. What we have now with the….. with the little bits and pieces of stuff that much of the time don’t have a lot of foundation is what’s directed a lot of the news coverage and we need more in-depth coverage like this so I’m glad that the owner of this station allows programs like this to continue. (MY GOODNESS. SHAMELESS.)
Amy: Well, once again I’m honored to have the two of you and I have learned a lot just by listening to the both of you today, so I can’t thank you enough.
Senator Heller: Thank you Amy.
Jeff: We’d just like to commit that you come back and you do this every Friday with us, so if we could do that we’d be pretty good. We think the ratings would be fantastic. No, we hope you can come back again. You always have an open invitation for What’s Your Point and we want to thank you again real quick.
Senator Reid: I’ve often wondered, what is your point?
Jeff: Well, we have many points here actually. We have many points on this program. Again gentlemen, thanks. It’s been a real pleasure. And thank you. If you have a comment, I’m sure you will, our email address; wyp@mynews3.com. I’m Jeff Gillan. Thank you very much for a very good Friday. Have a great weekend. We’ll see you next week.
Transcribed by: http://idictate.com
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