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. Rep. Harry Teague, a first-term Democrat, won in 2008 in part by talking about how he treated his employees, including proudly boasting that his companies provided health care for those who worked for him.
That’s no longer the case apparently. Even as Teague was voting against the recent health care bill that passed Congress, his companies were cutting health care for workers, Politico is reporting today.
In late December, as the health care debate raged in Washington, a human resource manager sent a memo to 250 employees at the five companies owned by Teague notifying them that at the end of February the firms would no longer offer health insurance, the news site reports.
Politico quotes a Teague spokeswoman as saying there was no “contradiction between the company’s cutbacks and Teague’s campaign-year boasts about providing health insurance.”
According to Politico, the spokeswoman went on to say that Teague “thinks employers should provide health insurance coverage for employees — that’s what he did when he was running a company. But he also knows that the economic downturn has forced many small businesses to make tough choices to survive.”
UPDATE 10:56 a.m. –Teague spokeswoman Kara Kelber just e-mailed me the entire statement the office sent to Politico. Here it is:
“The Congressman has said that he thinks employers should provide health insurance coverage for employees – that’s what he did when he was running a company, but he also knows that the economic downturn has forced many small businesses to make tough choices to survive.”
“As a small businessman who worked in the oil and gas industry, Harry is familiar with the economic ups and downs of the industry. While he is not involved in day-to-day operations of the company anymore, he deeply regrets that the rising cost of health insurance forced the company to make this decision. Ultimately, it came down to cutting the high cost benefit or cutting jobs. And in these tough economic times, cutting jobs in southern New Mexico was something the company tried to avoid at all costs.”
“During the healthcare debate, Congressman Teague repeatedly expressed his concern with the economic impact of the bill’s mandates on small businesses. In fact, he often cited health insurance costs and the failure to guarantee or require affordable options for small businesses as a reason for voting against the bill.”
