A Tale of Two Ricks and New Mexico’s 47 percent

This past Saturday, October 11th, 2014, Rick Lopez, running for state treasurer, told us all an admirable story about how he grew up from very poor beginnings to become the successful man he is today. That part of the story was fine and by all appearances he is a nice man. It then veered off, however, into his own Romney/Ryan version of a diatribe. He blamed poverty on President Johnson’s War On Poverty Programs, claiming they were a complete disaster leaving too many people on ‘generational welfare.’  How any of these broad points had anything to do with how he was going to do his job as State Treasurer, if elected, is beyond me.  Apparently he had just been released from the GOP/FOX Talking Points Workshop.

Mr. Lopez then told us that the real problem with the poor in our state is that “47% of America is on public assistance of some kind.”  Gee, does anybody remember that familiar refrain from Mitt Romney’s infamous 47%-$10,000/plate-Dinner-Video?

According to him, people just don’t want to work.  Once he brought those talking points out, I almost laughed out loud! He recovered by saying that the real solution to poverty is a good education, so that people can lift themselves up.  I agree with that statement.  Of course, after 4-years of Martinez Education Reforms and $1 Billion Dollars paid to an out of state “testing business,” that benefits from, you guessed it, constant testing.  As a result of this program “Reading & Math Proficiency Scores for New Mexico students” are actually lower! 

Mr. Lopez then took a departure from the Martinez/McCleskey script.  He went on to say that the problem in schools is that education should be between the children, their parents and the teachers, not administrators! Good thing there were no tape or video recorders in the room. It seems that he doesn’t entirely agree with the Martinez/Skandera Education Reform Program. He then said that the real problem is that most parents are working too many jobs and not at home enough to discipline their own children, thus making it the job of the schools and teachers.

Wait a minute, didn’t he say earlier that the problem with the poor is that “Nobody wants to work and before too long, we may have to import workers into our country to do the work that our citizens won’t do?“  My thought at that point in his commentary, “The economy is so bad that people are working too many jobs to keep a roof over their children’s heads and food in their bellies, so it might be true that children are left to raise themselves.”  But his comments had to be off script, because it is Governor Martinez and her party that wants to end Driver’s Licenses for “Illegal Immigrants” and deport them all back to their countries of origin.

Next he went on to say that he had worked with the Farm Service Bureau, which is a USDA supported and guaranteed financing program for farmers, ranchers and rural based small businesses. He works in the mortgage finance industry and cited low income housing programs as one of his areas of expertise; once again more areas of work that are a result of government supported programs, programs that are a direct result of Johnson’s War On Poverty dealing in ‘fair housing’. Imagine that! He went on to state that he managed large investment funds for many entities. How much would you like to bet that they are guaranteed by the US Government?

The other Rick–Rick Lopez, the County Chair of the Torrance County Republican Party, got up, lectured and ranted about how we need to stop smearing Governor Martinez and her Republican candidates with their records and words.  Apparently citing what they have said or done in the last 4 years are smears. Of course this immediately reminded me of Romney’s operative who on more than one occasion stated, “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers,” Neil Newhouse back in August of 2012.

Rick Lopez of Torrance County  said we should all stand by Susana Martinez and give her a chance to clean up the mess our state is in, never once acknowledging the GOP’s role in rigging the system against working families.”  He spoke right out of the GOP Game Book of Talking Points with tremendous indignation and an extra dose of authority, all the while never acknowledging that he works for the USDA and adamantly insisting that his small business, the Old Mill Cafe, should not be dictated to regarding a fair minimum wage increase.   Governor Martinez now claims she is in support of the minimum wage increase even though she vetoed the minimum wage increase to $8.50, this past legislative session.

The moral of the story is this;

#1  If you are a Republican, you expect government to work for you and by all means, employ you! 

#2  Under no circumstances, should you have a dose of reality regarding the needs of the less fortunate because they are just the lazy 47%, who work too much to discipline their own children.

#3  If you are poor and struggling, you are to blame for not having had a better education to prevent you from having to work 2-3 jobs!

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