{"id":29764,"date":"2011-06-07T08:50:24","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T14:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=29764"},"modified":"2011-06-08T08:16:25","modified_gmt":"2011-06-08T14:16:25","slug":"wilson-focuses-on-%e2%80%98unsustainable%e2%80%99-financial-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/06\/wilson-focuses-on-%e2%80%98unsustainable%e2%80%99-financial-situation\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilson focuses on \u2018unsustainable\u2019 financial situation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

U.S. Senate candidate Heather Wilson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Heather Wilson<\/a> told NMPolitics.net in March 2008 that the media was blowing the nation\u2019s economic problems out of proportion. She said she expected that there would be an \u201ceconomic slowdown,\u201d but it should be \u201cshort and shallow.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

That was in line with what many of the nation\u2019s leaders from both political parties said at the time. Of course, they were wrong. A few months later, the United States fell quickly into what some call the Great Recession<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward three years, and the Republican Wilson is once again running for an open seat in the U.S. Senate. This time, she\u2019s taking a much different tone when she talks about the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe country is in deep trouble,\u201d Wilson told me in March<\/a>. \u201cThe financial picture, no matter if you take the optimistic or pessimistic projections, they are both unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson is speaking primarily about the economy these days, but she\u2019s also talking about national defense, health care and building up families.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview during a visit to Las Cruces, Wilson said her willingness to grapple with those issues and her experience are what set her apart in the Senate race, which also features, on the GOP side, Lt. Gov. John Sanchez<\/a> and\u00a0two lesser-known candidates \u2013\u00a0Greg Sowards<\/a> and\u00a0William S. English<\/a>. On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep.\u00a0Martin Heinrich<\/a> and State Auditor\u00a0Hector Balderas<\/a> have entered the Senate race, as has little-known community activist\u00a0Andres Valdez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During her interview with NMPolitics.net, Wilson spoke at length about the economy, mentioning the balanced budgets Washington produced through bipartisan agreements at the end of Bill Clinton\u2019s presidency. She supported the wartime spending necessary to respond to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but said the mistake was \u201cnot getting back to fiscal balance soon enough after 9\/11.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson was careful not to criticize President George W. Bush, however, saying the United States \u201ccannot operate in the way we\u2019ve been doing over the last two years\u201d since Barack Obama became president.<\/p>\n

She spoke glowingly about the efforts by Rep. Paul Ryan<\/a>, R-Wis., to steer the conversation about the budget, saying he has done a service to the nation by presenting substantive ideas. However, Wilson didn\u2019t take a position on Ryan\u2019s budget plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018We have a spending problem\u2019<\/h3>\n

Wilson said the solution to the nation\u2019s economic woes comes not in raising taxes, but in cutting spending. That puts her at odds with former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici<\/a>, R-N.M. and her political mentor. Domenici, who has taken a high-profile role in the conversation about America\u2019s fiscal future, says a mix of spending cuts and tax increases<\/a> is necessary.<\/p>\n

Not Wilson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a revenue problem,\u201d she told NMPolitics.net. \u201cWe have a spending problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, when asked about Obama\u2019s proposal to cut military spending, Wilson said she doesn\u2019t believe \u201csignificant\u201d cuts can be made by the Department of Defense. She said it is \u201cone of the more efficient and effective\u201d departments in the federal government.<\/p>\n

But she does believe that all departments need more scrutiny. The Senate should revive a past committee that reviews programs, so managers have to appear before lawmakers and justify spending.<\/p>\n

Wilson said she favors a simplification of the tax code. And she said the United States must move toward low taxes, less regulation and a stronger education system.<\/p>\n

Foreign policy<\/h3>\n

Wilson\u2019s greatest area of expertise might be foreign policy. There\u2019s a lot going on right now, including the unrest in the Middle East, and Wilson said this is a time of great risk. She said the United States must stay engaged and \u201cstand on the side of freedom,\u201d and she criticized Obama for reducing U.S. involvement in some countries.<\/p>\n

But not Libya. Obama\u2019s mistake there, Wilson said, was being slow to act. She said he should have been more decisive and not waited for U.N. involvement before engaging in Libya.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecisive action could have ended this sooner,\u201d she said, adding that the decision to act should have been easy: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has supported terrorism and killed Americans, and the United States has some vital interests there.<\/p>\n

Wilson said the United States should intervene \u2013 militarily or otherwise \u2013 in another country when there is a vital national interest at stake and when the United States is in a position in which intervention is doable, saying it\u2019s more realistic in some situations than others.<\/p>\n

She said U.S. military forces should only be involved when there\u2019s a vital interest, when they\u2019ll be under American command, and when there\u2019s a clear mission from which they can come home safely.<\/p>\n

Wilson said her view that the United States should be significantly involved in other countries is not inconsistent with her assertion that the United States\u2019 financial situation is unsustainable. She said the Defense Department \u201cis not the cause\u201d of the nation\u2019s financial woes and \u201ccannot be the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mexico\u2019s \u2018narco-insurgency\u2019<\/h3>\n

One country that has Wilson concerned is Mexico. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano recently said the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border is \u201cbetter now than it has ever been\u201d<\/a> and violence isn\u2019t spilling over in a serious way. Wilson said Napolitano \u201cseriously misjudges the seriousness of the situation in Northern Mexico\u201d and its impact on this side of the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past 2-3 years, the cartels in Northern Mexico have gone from fighting each other to control the most lucrative drug routes to targeting local officials in Mexico for intimidation and even execution in what looks more and more like a narco- insurgency\u00a0focused not on toppling a government, but\u00a0on creating a permissive\u00a0environment in which to operate their illicit enterprises,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the corruption is spilling over the border,\u201d she said. \u201cThe recent arrests in Columbus<\/a> are one example.\u00a0In the past five years, 80 border patrol agents have been arrested for corruption<\/a>.\u00a0At least a hundred more have been investigated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson said the United States must expand its intelligence gathering and cooperation with the Mexican government, but she does not favor military intervention by the United States. And she said she would match her understanding \u201cof the priorities in national intelligence\u201d with Napolitano\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there is some intelligence\u00a0collection focused on Northern Mexico, it is really very limited and needs to be beefed up substantially given the deterioration in the situation\u00a0in Northern Mexico over the past two years,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

She said she favors a comprehensive approach to immigration reform and border security that includes use of law enforcement agents, physical barriers, technology and changes in policy, in addition to better intelligence gathering in Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heather Wilson said in 2008, before many realized that the economy was collapsing, that the media was exaggerating the nation\u2019s financial problems. She\u2019s again running for U.S. Senate, but this time she\u2019s taking a different tone when talking about the economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[156,118,195,171,116],"class_list":["post-29764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-economy","tag-mexicos-drug-war","tag-military","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}