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.
59 percent of New Mexico voters say the federal budget deficit reduction should not involve cutting Medicaid, according to a new poll commissioned by advocacy groups in the state.
A new Gallup poll finds, on average, Americans believe 51 cents out of every dollar the federal government spends is wasted, a new high since the question was first asked in 1979.
In his book “Fed Up!,” Rick Perry called Social Security a Ponzi scheme and said it was unconstitutional, but now that he’s got his eye on the White House, Perry and his campaign are distancing from those statements.
Funding for Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories helped New Mexico bring in more federal dollars per person than all but four other states, federal databases show for fiscal year 2009. Only Alaska, Hawaii, Maryland and Virgina received more money…
Raising the retirement age to 70 would disproportionately affect lower income seniors who work in physically demanding jobs they likely wouldn’t be able to continue through their 60s. Already, two-thirds of non-disabled workers choose to start getting lower benefits at 62 instead of waiting for full benefits at 65. And although the average lifespan has increased by about seven years since Social Security’s creation, the poorest 20 percent of Americans are living just two years longer
House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner said earlier this summer that if the Republicans regain control of the House this year, among the initiatives they would likely consider would be raising the age of social security retirement to 70. Most New Mexico congressional candidates, including incumbent Democrats Martin Heinrich and Harry Teague, as well as Republican challengers Jon Barela and Steve Pearce, offered varying degrees of resistance to that idea. Democrat Ben Ray Lujan was vague in his answer, while his challenger, Tom Mullins, said the retirement age will “undoubtedly” be raised.
Hundreds of placard-waving Tea Party activists in Albuquerque weren’t sheepish Thursday about sharing ideas on where to trim government fat. Eliminate the federal Department of Education. Reduce foreign aid. Starve the defense budget. Cut back or phase out big domestic spending programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. They all came up as potential cost-savings measures.
On Tuesday Steve Pearce’s congressional campaign told Joe Monahan that saying Pearce once supported privatizing Social Security “is factually untrue.”
“Pearce…strongly believes that we must fulfill our promises to our seniors and make it solvent for current and future…
The nonpartisan truth factory known as Factcheck.org is as good a place as any to get your Wednesday night debate-watching detectors in gear. (It’s also a decent tool for setting some ground rules for a debate-watching drinking game, but the New Mexico Independent isn’t outright endorsing such potentially irresponsible behavior.)
