I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
On Thursday afternoon, the president and many congressional leaders sounded confident they had a deal in place on a proposed bailout to stabilize the economy. But by Thursday evening, it was clear no deal was in place, largely because a group of conservative Republicans are rejecting the plan.
U.S. Rep. and Senate candidate Steve Pearce, R-N.M., is among the proposal’s detractors. Their unwillingness to support the bailout is keeping Washington and Wall Street on edge.
Pearce says the bailout proposal isn’t a real solution to the financial crisis.
“The plan lacks any measure of accountability and does not address the root causes that got us into this mess,” Pearce said in a statement released Thursday. “The administration is about to spend nearly $1 trillion in taxpayer money without so much as a single hearing or investigation into how this occurred. The Justice Department spent more time going after Martha Stewart for a few thousand dollars worth of stock than they will investigating those who have brought our economy to the brink of collapse.”
Pearce is well known as a fiscal conservative. As a member of the House, he often voted against bills that contained spending provisions he opposed. The anti-tax and anti-spending Club for Growth is one of his biggest supporters.
He’s been criticized by many, including GOP U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, his opponent during the Senate primary, for voting against bills on the basis of ideology, which Wilson said during the campaign is less important than practical impact.
Pearce, during the primary, touted the fact that he has never wavered from his commitment to fiscal conservatism.
“I have done it time and time again in the New Mexico delegation, standing alone,” Pearce said before a crowd of more than 100 people at a primary debate in Alamogordo in February.
In the Thursday statement, Pearce said the bailout plan “does not address the very things that were used to create this catastrophe. There is no reform of the market tools and instruments that got us here. We’re going to bail the market out and then let them do the same thing tomorrow? That’s not what the American people want.”
Pearce said any plan “to move the economy forward” must include accountability, “updated reforms to respond to new market vehicles, taxpayer protections, limits on leveraging, transparency for investors and value free-market solutions over government intervention.”
Thursday wasn’t the first time Pearce has made a statement opposing the bailout plan. He first announced his opposition earlier this week. His opponent in the Senate race, Democrat Tom Udall, has said the president’s plan needs significant changes, but has not flatly opposed it.
Pearce put out a second news release Thursday evening expressing concern that the bailout proposal would “allow Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson broad, unchecked power to spend $700 billion in taxpayer money with very little reform of the system.” Pearce pointed out that Paulson was chief executive officer at Goldman Sachs, “one of the companies involved in creating the financial crisis,” for eight years and was employed there for 15 years.
“I don’t think anyone should be confident that he will hold accountable those who got us into this, nor that he will institute the proper reforms to prevent it from happening again,” Pearce said. “… This is a case of putting the fox in control of the hen house. We need real reform, not just a bailout at taxpayer expense.”
