Local blogger Bill Haralson recently sat down with Steve Pearce for an interview.
So after months of speculation and constant wavering on the issue, Harry Teague did the politically-expedient thing and voted against the Democrat healthcare bill that passed by a narrow 220-215 margin on Saturday night. Teague is trying to spin his vote as a principled stand against his own party's leadership and against growing deficits and government spending. But we know better. And we must remind the voters around the district of the facts.
The first fact is that Teague voted for the consideration of this bill. Every single Republican and 15 principled Democrats voted against even allowing this bill to be debated. Teague could have taken a stand there if he truly wanted to show his independence from Democrat leadership. Instead, he did Nancy Pelosi's bidding and voted to allow the bill to move forward. He did that with the full knowledge that Pelosi would get the necessary votes for final passage later in the day. So instead of standing with the Republicans and his 15 Democrat colleagues who had the courage to truly take a stand, Teague tried to have it both ways. He voted for it before he voted against it. Sound familiar for a Democrat?
Secondly, Teague's argument that he was concerned about government spending and growing deficits holds absolutely no water whatsoever. If Teague truly was concerned about those things, he wouldn't have voted for cap & trade and he wouldn't have voted for a trillion dollar "stimulus" that has done nothing to curb unemployment or stimulate the economy. The fact is that Teague knows he probably went too far with his support of reckless spending in the past--especially now that he's facing a real conservative in his re-election fight. So, scared that he won't be sent back to Congress by the voters of Southern New Mexico, he's suddenly seen the light and voted against this healthcare bill. Like I said above, we know better. We know Harry Teague's real record.
Bill Haralson's Interview With Steve Pearce
Bill: Steve, Dona Ana County has the largest concentration of population in the 2nd Congressional District. How will the policies that you promote affect the people of Dona Ana County?
Steve: The main thing we need to know is that New Mexico has a significant agricultural industry. Cap and Trade, which Harry Teague voted for, will increase the cost of energy, which will directly affect farmers in Dona Ana County and the rest of New Mexico. That bill will increase the cost of fuel and irrigation and many farmers may not be able to stand up under the greater costs. Cap and trade hurts jobs, such as mining, coal mining and oil and gas. There is a refinery over in Artesia that Cap and Trade will cost $500 million to $1trillion and it will have to shut down.
The second point is Obamacare. I am not in favor of government run health care that will hurt small business. This Washington takeover is not something Americans want. We are asked to believe that the bill will be deficit neutral. More people believe that aliens landed in Roswell than believe that Obamacare won’t cost us more money that is being claimed. I think the American people should be heard on this health care bill. And, I think we ought to protect the rights of those that are currently insured
Bill: Does it seem to you that the liberals in Washington are too willing to trade our liberties and freedoms for the
perceived benefits of their bills, whether they are real or imagined?
Steve: Absolutely. They are trading in our freedoms. They are trading in our economic freedoms. They are also attacking our other freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion. The Constitution says that Congress shall make no laws that affect our freedom of religion. But they recently passed hate crime legislation and it was signed into law. The left is causing catastrophic damage to our freedom.
Bill: And, lot of people don’t realize that higher taxes are a loss of freedom. I read somewhere that we have to work about half the year to pay for all the taxes imposed on us. And the more taxes put on us means the more we work for the government instead of ourselves.
Steve: Absolutely. Take this whole idea of trillions. Every time we hear trillions, we have no idea how much a trillion really is. I have heard somebody say that if you count a trillion dollars one at a time, it would take 37,000 years to count it all. And that kind of puts a face on it. But what I think about is how much taxes would increase with the health care bill. A rough estimate is that it is close to $10,000 for a family of four making $50,000. Most people in New Mexico do not make $50,000. New Mexicans cannot afford $8 to $10 thousand. We don’t have that kind of money. What will happen is inflation or greater deficits. Everything they are doing now in Washington is economically all wrong.
Bill: Do you think the liberals got a message in the recent election?
Steve: I think there was a very loud and clear message. There was a 25 point shift in voting patterns. People are saying, let’s stop and read the bills and maybe read the Constitution.
Bill: I think it’s interesting that when we attended a tea party meeting here in Lincoln County recently, the one thing we agreed on was to study the Constitution. We are bringing in an instructor that teaches the Constitution.
Steve: That’s a program that I encourage. There are over 100 churches in New Mexico that have offered to host Constitution classes. I think the idea of studying the Constitution is absolutely imperative. People don’t remember the freedoms spelled out in the Constitution. It is time for government to be of the people, by the people and for the people. That is what our founding fathers wanted for us. The Constitution is what insures justice. The Constitution is a magnificent document.
Bill: That is what we are trying to get across in our little local tea party. The left does not want to hear from us. They don’t want to hear from the tea parties and the town halls. They want us to shut up and be quiet. We’re not going to do it.
Steve: Good: People are telling me all the time that they send letters and e-mails to Washington but nobody is listening. Please, watch what they do, not what they say. They intended to have a vote on health care last July, but they have not done it yet in the Senate. They are listening carefully because they fear being voted out of office. Also they promised Cap and Trade would pass last summer but it has not happened yet in the Senate, especially in the face of the tea parties and town hall meetings.
Bill: I think it is ironic that the Democrats seemed to have had this feeling of euphoria after the last election. They had control of Washington. Now they have found that they have met the enemy and it is them. That Democratic congressman from Florida, Alan Grayson, got up on the House floor and accused the house Republicans of wanting people to die, when they got sick. I sent him an e-mail asking him why he was attacking the House Republicans. The Democrats have all of the power. If they want to pass a bill, then do it. But they don’t have courage to do it.
Steve: Yes, they don’t have the courage. They are being pushed by a leader that doesn’t care if they lose. The people inherently know that health care will not be deficit neutral. The Democratic leadership wants to pass a far left bill that takes over that industry and most Americans do not want that to happen.
Bill: Las Cruces has large housing problem. What will you do to alleviate this problem?
Steve: The only thing to do is to restart the economy. Housing suffers when people cannot pay their mortgages. We need to cut taxes and put more people back to work. The stimulus bill is not the answer. We should not be taking over General Motors. We don’t need cash for clunkers. We should not be giving Wall Street bonuses at a time when people are hurting. The most important thing we can do is get people working again.
Bill: I think the Obama administration is pursuing a hypocritical approach of hurry up and pass legislation that doesn’t take place until much later. They did that with the stimulus bill and they intend to do it with the health care bill, which will not kick in until 2013.
Steve: They are creating emergencies to pass legislation. I think it is a dangerous strategy. The American people have figured it out. The Obama administration has been talking about swine flu for a year, and when we now have the problem, there are not enough doses of vaccination. The American people lost confidence in the Bush administration during Katrina, and now the people have lost confidence in Obama .
Bill: What is your view of the Spaceport project located north of Las Cruces?
Steve: I support the Spaceport project. But I do not support paying for the program with taxes. Projects funded by taxes are usually not as effective as projects that are funded by the private sector. And here in New Mexico, we have a budget that is going to have to be reduced so we are not in a position to support a new project that requires more taxes. And when we depend on taxes to support a program, we run the risk that when the tax support plays out, the jobs go away.
Bill: One of the issues that’s a burr under my saddle is the threat to the Medicare Advantage project. As I understand it, President Obama is sacrificing the Advantage program to get AARP on board for the health care program.
Steve: You are exactly right. We have been promised that Social Security would be there for us. That’s a lie. Social Security was passed on an untruth – that you can’t retire until 62 at a time when men lived to 60, so only women would benefit. We have known for 40 years that Social Security would run out of money. We are now projecting it to go broke by 2012. The Obama Administration has looked at health care, and they don’t see how we can pay the bills. They are trying to work their way out of jam by telling people they won’t get their medicine.
Bill: In contradiction to that, the SCHIP has defined poor children as anyone under 25 in households making less than $85, 000. That seems insane
Steve: The SCHIP program has evolved away from children’s insurance into government free medical insurance. We cannot, in these times, ask people to give up their money that their family needs to live in order to pay for someone else’s medical care.
Bill: I find it incredible that 85 percent of the American people are covered with health insurance, yet the Obama administration is spending much of its time working on health care rather than focusing on ways to fix the economy. And they seem to be using a hatchet when a scalpel will do.
Steve: Everyone agrees that health care needs reform. However, we don’t need this huge 2000-page bill. We can pass a series of 10 to 15 page bills that can be implemented incrementally. We can pass a bill and see how it works and go from there. Your right, we do not need to take an ax to our existing health care system.
Bill: So you are talking about reforming health care through legislation and not creating these huge bureaucracies.
Steve: That’s correct. We don’t need more bureaucracies.
Bill: Steve, if some form of the Democrat’s health care bill passes and is signed into law, do you think that the left will be content to stop there? I mean, if they can claim that they are responsible for our health, isn’t the next step to tell us what food we can eat, how much we should weigh and how much exercise we should get? In other words, won’t they want to tell how to live our lives?
Steve: The design of the left is to figure out how much money they can take from us and redistribute it to others. So if they pass health care, I can absolutely guarantee that they will meddle with the fat contents in restaurants, and with what you are able to choose to eat. Just like tobacco. Keep in mind that one of the greatest contributors to the left are the trial lawyer who try to find ways to bring law suits. At some point, we need to stop being a litigious society.
Bill: Another issue where I think that the left is being naïve is limiting salaries of doctors. These people are professionals who invest a lot of time and money preparing for their professions. I would expect that many of them will consider other professions, or if they are already in practice, they may choose to take early retirement.
Steve: We hear this daily. If the government wants socialized medicine, they have to ration because there will not be enough doctors to handle an additional 47 million people. An even bigger problem is that people who are now paying their own way for health care will opt for the public option.
Bill: Steve, I used to think that the people that represent us in Washington had our best interest at heart. I don’t know that I believe that anymore.
Steve: I worry about the government intrusion into our private lives. If the government can run businesses, let them prove it by showing us how to successfully run the programs they now are in charge of.
Bill: Steve, thanks for taking the time to talk to me. Good luck in your bid for the 2nd Congressional District.
Steve: Thank you, Bill
