Health Care Reform 2.0

In an emotional town hall in suburban Annandale, VA today, President Obama spoke with Americans who shared their nightmarish experiences with the existing health insurance industry.
In pledging his commitment to health care reform, Obama spoke favorably of the so-called public option, a government-sponsored health care plan that would operate in competition with private insurance.  Recent [...]

California’s Nightmare State

If the so-called teabaggers need an example of what life would look like without government, they need only to look at what’s happening in California right now.
Government there is under siege after voters rejected tax measures that would have funded vital state services and resources.
Now California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he’s forced to shut down [...]

Teabag protest is not about responsible tax policy

As we face another April 15, the great American debate over taxes and the proper role of government has taken a turn toward the grotesque.
Those screaming the loudest this Tax Day are the self-named “teabaggers,” who are angrily carrying signs and delivering tea bags to elected officials in actions they say are based on the [...]

Session-omics and the Rail Runner

The RailRunner couldn’t have come at a better time, for me at least. With the legislative session starting up in six weeks, the RailRunner has already posted schedules for the Albuquerque to Santa Fe roundtrip, with a stop just south of the Roundhouse. The times work great, the pick-up and drop-off locations work great and [...]

The people spoke, but will legislators listen?

In poll after poll prior to November 4th, New Mexican voters voiced their desire for change – not just generic change for change’s sake, but real change in the economy, real change in health care, real change in the war, real change in energy sources and real change in the ethical behavior of elected leaders.
Voters [...]

Are Taxes Evil?

The roads we drive on, the Medicare that helps senior citizens, the garbage that is collected every week – we all know the source of funding for these services – the taxes assessed and collected by the government, paid for by you and I.
In today’s political climate, there’s no way in hell a candidate would [...]

Time for an Intervention

Bob Herbert sums up well what happens when a society’s (ours) priorities go awry. A crumbling infrastructure, a lack of emphasis on education, an election contest turned into a horse race – it’s all here.
What a perfectly lovely mess.
I think we can pretty much rule out drowning government in a bathtub as a prescription for [...]

Government Is “Bad”… until “They” need it

Today, the United States Government announced “an extraordinary and historic investment in the nation’s banks – the biggest bet ever made with taxpayer dollars on the U.S. financial system.” (link)
With the announcement that $250 billion in US tax dollars is going directly into nine of the nation’s biggest banks, the stock market immediately rallied, as [...]

It’s the economy, clearly

Most economists are saying that the earthquake that struck the United States’ financial markets hasn’t even hit us fully yet. It’s like a rumbling from deep in the earth’s core – it’s coming towards us, gaining velocity, and all that we know for sure is that there’s going to be a hell of a lot [...]

A Less Perfect Union

A destructive trend has gripped this country over the past three decades. Culminating with Grover Norquist’s infamous musing about government (“get it down to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub”), the fanatical movement to dismantle, and subsequently privatize our public structures has damaged America.
Public structures include tangible items like roads, bridges, [...]