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.
Despite claims by the liberal advocacy group Democracy for America (DFA), a spokeswoman for Representative Harry Teague, D-N.M., indicated that he is undecided on whether or not to vote for a public health insurance option. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for DFA said she believed Teague would vote for a health care reform bill with a public option.
“Teague is not opposed to a health reform package that brings competition in to the system by providing a public option if it brings down costs, allows people to keep their doctors if they are happy with them, and if it brings better healthcare to more people. But, he has real concerns with the current bill,” Teague Communications Director Sara Schreiber said Monday in an e-mail to the Independent.
Among those concerns is a score by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) which Schreiber said “has indicated that this bill does nothing to rein in the cost of health care.”
A recent CBO score showed that a House bill that includes a public option would actually reduce the deficit over ten years. This score, however, was merely a preliminary score and is not considered “official.”
Teague, Schreiber said, “is worried that the direction we are going in right now only ensures that the big health insurance companies get another trillion dollars of taxpayer money to fight over.”
But Mary Rickles, a spokeswoman for DFA, told NMI in an e-mail that “Teague was put on our whip count list this summer, meaning someone on the DFA staff called his office to confirm an earlier report from a DFA member (we had asked our members to call their Reps/Senators and then we confirmed the yesses).”
Rickles said simply, “Shorter: We think he will vote for a public option.”
Teague already made one vote which was considered controversial, a vote for the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act of 2009. Former U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce cited the bill, which included a cap-and-trade provision, as a reason for him to enter the 2nd Congressional District race.
In a statement announcing his candidacy, Pearce said, “Harry Teague put his allegiance to the liberal leadership of Nancy Pelosi ahead of the working families of New Mexico.”
