I don’t like Governor Richardson’s ill-conceived health care proposal. That’s probably no surprise to anyone. But, what really irks me lately is Governor Richardson’s holier than thou attitude regarding our citizen legislators:
At a news conference just 15 days ago, an upbeat Gov. Bill Richardson repeated two key words for lawmakers as they convened in Santa Fe: health care, health care, health care.
On Wednesday, halfway point for the legislative session, Richardson used the same words — with a much different tone.
“I said before the session that the focus of this 30-day legislative session would be health care, would be health care, and would be health care,” he said, “and up until today we saw very little action.”
Unfortunately for Richardson’s agenda, the only action on his proposal was a vote by a key House committee on Wednesday morning to strip the bill of its mandate to insure all New Mexicans and ship the measure on to its next stop in the Roundhouse.
The governor deemed the move “unacceptable” and called the assembled lawmakers a “do-nothing Legislature, especially on health care.”
I’ve been known to give the legislators a hard time on occasion. Ok, on many occasions. However, I find it more than a bit offensive for the PAID Governor, who has been absent from the state for nearly a year pursuing his delusions of grandeur, to call the men and women who volunteer their time to serve New Mexicans “a do-nothing Legislature” because they don’t rubber stamp the most expensive and ill-conceived program of this administration.
New Mexico is facing an impending budget crisis because of the spendathon launched during this Governor’s tenure. Mark my words… in 2009 there will be a grab for additional permanent fund dollars to balance the overgrown state budget.
I, for one, am glad our legislators have finally said enough is enough.