NMPolitics.net (https://nmpolitics.net/index/category/blogs/page/4/)
It’s anyone’s right to disagree with wilderness designations as a concept, but to stubbornly misrepresent the facts and distort the public dialogue through scare tactics is inappropriate. Continue Reading
Please, White House, pay attention and focus on jobs, jobs, jobs. Let’s not further suck the life out of this economy by unprioritizing the priority. Continue Reading
We the people have spoken. We want a balanced budget without cuts to services or tax increases. It’s clear that the public doesn’t know what it wants and knows even less how to get there. That’s where our leaders come in. We need them to lead. Continue Reading
Our intergenerational mobility – our chance of our kids “having a better life than we did” – is getting slimmer. Continue Reading
I was surprised to hear, during retired Major General Eaton’s talk on U.S. energy policy on Wednesday in Las Cruces, that the Department of Defense is already churning out successful hybrid and biofuel military vehicles. Continue Reading
When I think of “sexy” professions, regulators seem nestled snugly between port-a-potty cleaner and roadkill removers. Compare this stereotype to other public servants like doctors, nurses, firemen, police officers and soldiers. Teachers are called noble. District attorneys and public defenders are considered crusaders for justice. What about the humble regulators? They get called bureaucrats and busybodies. Rather than writing new regulations, we need to change the way that we think and talk about the regulators themselves. Continue Reading
Does climate change threaten U.S. national security? Retired Army Major General Paul Eaton thinks so, and he is touring New Mexico saying just that. Continue Reading
Financial education should be nationally mandated, but we need to start in New Mexico. Currently, high schools in New Mexico lack required education about basic economics, interest rates, or the financial tools and terms required to create a financially stable life. Continue Reading
We’ve got problems (globally, nationally, and locally) and we need all hands on deck to get this right. We need to be able to work together and learn to admit when we’re wrong so that we can get down to the hard yards of moving forward. Of course, I could be wrong… Continue Reading
The truth is that we must radically optimize government (including cutting waste and eliminating tax loopholes and noncompliance) and will still likely need to raise taxes and cut or modify services to stay solvent. It’s not going to be fun or easy. But can we handle the truth? Continue Reading
The Gulf oil spill comes in the context of a series of events that have highlighted two distinct and competing visions of the role of business and federal government in the United States. But to me, the question of whether government is too big or too small is irrelevant. The question is whether it does its job. Continue Reading
The worst financial crisis since the Depression happened because financial risk got ahead of the world’s ability to manage it. The boundaries between government and markets are being redrawn, but, unfortunately, not in a way that would keep a similar crisis from happening again. Continue Reading
I was planning to write a rapid response piece to all the snarky, ill-willed and unfounded political comments that were supposed to be made at last night’s 82nd Academy Awards. The problem: There was absolutely zero fuel for the fodder. Continue Reading
Rather than listening to pundits, my laptop and I traveled out of the District to the home of a dear friend in Falls Church, Virginia. I listened to zero commentary. Just soaked in e-mails and texts from self-professed Democrats, independents and Republicans. Here’s what I and they thought. Continue Reading
Yes, for many, 2009 was just one of those years — and, then, there was the atrocious economy to compound it. Or perhaps it’s the other way around. Maybe it was the atrocious economy of 2009 that aggravated everything else into a difficult and complicated mess-of-a-year. Either way, it was rough. Continue Reading