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.
According to the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), Senator Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., has expressed support for passing the public option through reconciliation if it comes up for a vote on the Senate floor. Bingaman is among the 30 Senators who approve of using reconciliation.
Reconciliation is a rule that allows for budgetary items to pass the Senate with a majority of votes. Republicans have been using the threat of a filibuster, another rule in the Senate, to block passage of the most aggressive health care reform proposals from Senate Democrats.
“I have long been a supporter of the public option, and I have voted for it every time it has come before the Senate,” Bingaman said in his statement. “I drafted the public option provision in the HELP Committee and co-sponsored the public option amendment in the Finance Committee. If the public option came up for a vote in reconciliation I would vote yes.”
In February, Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., announced his support for the use of reconciliation to pass the public option.
According to polling, the public option itself is more popular than health care reform itself, but a majority oppose using reconciliation to pass a health care bill.
