Sunday, January 25, 2009

Lobbyists spend 1.6 Million in New Mexico

How can the everyday voting public compete with that kind of money when it comes to laws in this state? When do elected officials have anytime or care for the needs and the wants of the people they were elected to represent if they are already bought and pay for by lobbyists of large school administrators and larger companies.

Where is the ethics in taking money to buy access to the government that should be by the people, for the people and of the people? The Obama administration is trying their hardest to limit the access of lobbyists while giving the voting public more access to laws and budgets made by this country’s governmental leadership. The problem is that our local elected officials are now getting the money that would have been spent on federal government. Working class Americans have little or no hope of getting a fair deal from a local government that has not time or ears for their issues. Where is the hope in state government?

More money in state government mean less benefits for working Americans. Local lawmakers are not likely to vote to freeze their paychecks or to stop this kind of selling of government when they are the ones receiving the money. Yet they are more then happy to cut the budget for education thereby taking away the hopes of working class families’ children. Yet there are those progressive representatives that turn down the money thereby giving hope for changes no matter how hard the battle becomes in Santa Fe. We clearly need to replace the ones that battle against education and green jobs just to stand for giving more money to oil and coal companies.

We should start by pointing out how state representatives cast their voted during the next 60 days. Who was among the 19 that voted for progress and who was the 23 that vote to stay the course?