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.
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson says he thinks the country needs an independent debt commission. This comes as Congress debates whether to raise the debt ceiling, with Republicans saying they would want steep cuts in order to raise the debt limit.
Richardson wrote about it while answering Politico’s question about which side would blink first on the debt ceiling.
Since it appears the debt limit issue once again has become increasingly polarized and political, the president and the Congress should consider a bipartisan commission of distinguished economists to take this issue away from the Congress and away from partisan politics. Oh yes critics will say, another commission to duck another hot issue. Precisely. America cannot afford political gamesmanship and uncontrolled partisanship damaging our economic recovery and hurting our international economic standing every time raising the debt limit requires action.
When I was in Congress neither party was willing to vote to shut down military bases. So we formed a military base commission to make the tough decisions. We should do the same with the debt limit.
Politico says that two bipartisan commissions already exist to discuss the debt.
One, the so-called Gang of Six, includes six senators who have been working for months to reach a deficit reduction deal. The other includes members of Congress invited by President Obama to begin negotiating next month with Vice President Joe Biden on legislation addressing the debt.
Richardson served in Congress in New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District from 1983 until 1997. He also served the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary of Energy under President Bill Clinton.
