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.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman called access to “decent affordable health care” a ”human right” at a town hall meeting in Albuquerque yesterday
He also said that while he still hopes to craft a bipartisan bill in the Senate, if that effort fails he would support pushing a health care reform bill through this year using the budget reconciliation bill.
Reconciliation is a special process through which the Senate deals with budget issues. Only 51 votes are needed to pass a budget reconciliation bill on the floor of the Senate, whereas all other bills are susceptible to a filibuster which requires 60 votes to overcome.
“We made a provision in the budget resolution [earlier this year] that it [the reconciliation bill] could be used to try to enact health care provisions related to health care reform,” he said. “There are restrictions to what you can include in that… but I would support it if that’s the only way.”
A member of the bipartisan “Gang of Six” senators on the Senate Finance Committee, Bingaman said the group is working hard to come up with something agreeable to all sides. But, he said, the three Republicans in the group are all opposed to the creation of a public insurance plan — also known as the “public option” — to be offered alongside private insurance plans.
He repeatedly said during the town hall that he thinks a public option is the best way to bring down costs. But if such a plan didn’t make it into the final legislation, it wouldn’t prevent him from ultimately voting for a health care reform bill.
