Steve Pearce place a full page ad in the Los Alamos Monitor today. His staff says the strategic media buy is aimed at reminding voters of cuts in LANL's budget.In June of 2007 a House Appropriations Committee cut more than $400 million out of the budget of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Tom Udall supported the cuts and Steve Pearce opposed them. Today, Tom Udall wants New Mexico voters to forget that he supported the cut to roughly 40% of the entire budget and put thousands of jobs at risk in the region. But they haven't forgotten and neither has Steve Pearce.
Pearce told voters that Udall's budet cuts that could have irreparably damaged northern New Mexico's economy and made the world less safe:
Tom Udall voted to cut Los Alamos National Laboratory by $400 million," states the ad. "That means jobs lost, real estate values in decline, a falling standard of living for Espanola, Santa Fe and Los Alamos and America's strategic nuclear deterrent put in jeopardy.
Before traveling to Farmington on Thursday (today), Pearce campaign staff notified us he's holding an urgent press availability at 7-Bar Aviation in Albuquerque at 1:45 pm to discuss the ad and set the record straight on which candidate is truly fighting for LANL's future.
Pearce, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, said he would also discuss the financial crisis with reporters.
Photo credit: MG Bralley
1 comment:
Udall's vote was correct, and Pearce's vote incorrect, if the intent is to represent New Mexicans at large, rather than just LANL workers.
The nuclear deterrent is a myth, as Paul Nitze (who started the nuclear arms race with his NSC-68), former Sect of State George Schultz and Henry Kissinger, former DOD Sect. Wm. Perry, and former Sen. Military Appropriations chair Nunn have all publicly testified. Paul Nitze has gone so far as to say we would be safer, even if we had to disarm unilaterally. LANL payments for the CMRR and the plutonium program are essentially welfare payments, and while they help the recipients, they withdraw highly skilled workers from useful production, and are an major CAUSE of why NM does so poorly economically.
In fact, I attribute our financial difficulties to creating fictitious accounting wealth (ie money, credit not backed by reserves). What Pearce is proposing is precisely the sort of policy that is creating the current crisis.
Erich Kuerschner, Taos economist
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