News New Mexico

Time Wasting - Dumb Priorities

The recent re-visiting of the debate on the possibility of pardoning Billy the Kid is a symptom of a huge problem. Apparently, prioritizing in New Mexico and in the

U.S.

is a tad on the tedious side. There is certainly nothing wrong with being a history buff. And there is also nothing wrong with reading stories about Billy the Kid. However, for real world problem solvers, these silly distractions expose New Mexico's elected officials, most particularly their ignoring of the fact that the state is broke and struggling with critical budgeting decisions. It became clear many months ago that not nearly enough discussions took place concerning what steps the governor and legislature might take to NOT SPEND $400 million the state did not have. And in the wake of the state's biggest looming budget crisis in memory, elected officials that still think expending any energy whatsoever to consider pardoning or not pardoning what Billy the Kid did 129 years ago are woefully misguided. Why does this topic, of all topics, keep coming up? The answer seems clear. Balancing the state budget through prioritization and choice making is boring, especially when compared to debating "Billy" or making the world safe from North Korea......again. Is it time for a change? Hmmmmm. Let me think.

Parts of East Coast Braces for Blizzard

Accuweather -

Jasper, Tenn., had a white Christmas as a winter storm rolled through on Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010. A storm system off the Northeast Coast will unleash a paralyzing blizzard along a vast swath of the I-95 corridor today. The storm is no joke and threatens to shut down major highways in the region and could close some major airports, creating a nightmare for those souls heading home after the Christmas holiday. People will get stranded on highways and at airports in this storm.

Travel in parts of the mid-Atlantic and New England will become difficult to impossible as the storm sidles northward, intensifying into Monday. Read full story here:

Let's Bankrupt Industries Going "Green"

Austin Hill

Townhall - by Austin Hill - Responding to these questions, a fatigued and hoarse-voiced Senator Obama stated, in part: “Let me describe my overall policy. What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in to place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there. I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gasses that is emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market, and the ratcheted-down caps that are proposed every year. So if somebody wants to build a coal power plant, they can, it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re gonna be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted…” Read full column here:

Silliest Stories of the Year

Townhall - by Debra Saunders - 2010 was a year consumed with silly stories. The more trivial the controversy, the more airtime it consumed. Although not all the silly stories made conservatives look stupid, the more a squabble tarnished the right, the surer it was to generate talking-head babble. And then they fizzle, as most non-stories do. Where to begin? Read full column here:

Merry Christmas!

To all who visit our website, particularly on this day, the day when millions of people all around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the entire News New Mexico team wishes everyone the merriest of Christmases and a safe, happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year. 2010 has been a year of great blessings for our organization. The mere fact that you have chosen to log on to this website is proof of our good fortunes. So let us, with the sincerest sense of humility, offer our deepest gratitude and thanks for your gracious support of all our efforts.

Haussamen: Dealing with Mexican Drug Cartels

NMPolitics.net - by Heath Haussamen - To address the growing problem of Mexican drug cartels, the United States has to seriously consider two ideas policymakers in Washington don’t want to touch. Neither is popular in Washington, and I’m not endorsing either – but I am urging serious consideration of both. The United States must consider legalizing, regulating and taxing some drugs that are currently illegal. And it must consider offering military aid to Mexico’s president. The second would definitely be more controversial in Mexico. So I’ll start there. Read full column here:

Parker: Anthony Weiner

Star Parker

Townhall - New York Congressman Anthony Weiner is making a name for himself. He wants taxes raised on wealthy Americans and is one of the more vocal opponents to the deal that would retain current tax rates for everyone. “An estate tax cut for millionaires adds exactly zero jobs. A tax cut for billionaires – virtually none,” says the congressman. But what does Weiner know about job creation, about work, about being an entrepreneur? Looking over his resume, you see he’s never held a private sector job.

Anthony Weiner

Right out of college, he went to work on the staff of then-Congressmen Chuck Schumer, followed by six years serving on New York’s city council, and then ran for congress in 1999, capturing the seat he currently holds. Mr. Weiner is a politically ambitious young man who has built power and career by confiscating and redistributing other people’s money. Read full column here:

Elder: 50 Years of Bad Ideas

Larry Elder

Townhall - For the past 50 years, the Democrats -- and many Republicans who should know better -- have been wrong about virtually every major domestic policy issue. Let's review some of them: Taxes. The bipartisan extension of the Bush tax cuts represents the latest triumph over the "soak the rich because trickledown doesn't work" leftists. President Ronald Reagan sharply reduced the top marginal tax rates from 70 percent to 28 percent, doubling the Treasury's tax revenue.

President George H.W. Bush raised the income tax rate, as did his successor. But President George W. Bush lowered them to the current 35 percent. President Barack Obama repeatedly called the current rate unfair, harmful to the country and a reward to those who "didn't need" the cuts and "didn't ask for" them. If true, he and his party ditched their moral obligation to oppose the extension. But they didn't, because none of it is true. Democratic icon John F. Kennedy, who reduced the top marginal rate from more than 90 percent to 70 percent, said, "A rising tide lifts all the boats." He was right -- and most of the Democratic Party knows it. Read full column here:

Blackwell: America's Financial Future

Ken Blackwell

Townhall - In August of this year, Admiral Michael Mullens, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised Congress that “The National debt is the biggest threat to our national security.” In November, voter sentiment against the debt and deficit led to an historic rebuke of Congressional incumbents. In December, the President’s Debt Commission laid out in stark terms the imminent economic impact of continued deficit spending. Apparently rejecting these clarion calls, the President and Congress acted in the lame-duck session to cut not one dime of federal spending, while increasing the national debt by nearly $1 trillion.

They are ignoring a glaring problem that, if not addressed soon, will cause a panoply of other problems. Some insist that the problem with increasing the debt by nearly $1 trillion is that the borrowed money will be loaned to us by China. Concerning as it is that we have become the world’s largest debtor to a foreign sovereign whose interests are (to put it mildly) not always in harmony with our own, that's not the biggest problem. What ought to be of even greater, more immediate concern is the fact that China will refuse to loan us the money. Read full column here:

Heinrich Capitulates - Plays the Demogogue Card

Martin Heinrich

After avidly supporting the outrageously wasteful $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that died in Congress last week, New Mexico's Martin Heinrich has become an accomplished demagogue. Commenting on the recent compromise in Washington that left tax rates unchanged, Heinrich seems to think now that the government is not going to increase its confiscation of a job creators income, this constitutes redistribution to the "wealthy."

How does he justify this? He begins by falsely pre-supposing that the money he speaks of is already in the hands of government. He then builds one false assumption and conculsion on top of another. Heinrich uses language that would have us all believe that 98% of Americans are "underdogs." How could anyone be against the underdog? His faulty reasoning is based on economic suppositions steeped in three completely irrational concepts. First, the congressman relies on the vice of "envy" in the minds of constituents he tries to manipulate. He first hopes he can get the majority of Americans to aggressively covet the higher income levels of the minority. Second, those that hear his words are asked to take a leap of faith that government can better manage resources than the productive citizens who have their incomes confiscated.

Third, he tries to peddle the ridiculous notion that IF somehow government does NOT confiscate what has been earned by productive individuals, that somehow an amount equal to what was NOT CONFISCATED must be borrowed by the government. Naturally, the idea of cutting expenses as an alternative to increasing the level of confiscation is blasphemy to Congressman Heinrich. Clearly change will not come from this congressman. Heinrich is quite content to try to pick the pockets of productive citizens for redistribution to any and all omnibus spending bills that come his way.

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