A4 Thursday, December 13, 2012
OPINION
Susana Martinez for president ... maybe in 2016?
It was about this time last year that political prognosticators, here and elsewhere, started to busy themselves with speculation that 2012 could prove to be a breakout year for Susana Martinez. We were headed into an election year, they noted. And not just any election year either. This was the beginning of a presidential election year in which the movers and shakers of Martinez’s Republican Party were bent on defeating the incumbent Democratic president. At the time a whole gaggle of Republicans were still in the running for their party’s presidential nomination and it was anybody’s guess who would ultimately prevail. But vice presidential nominees don’t run for that job. They are picked by the head of the party’s ticket. And before they are picked, they are “mentioned” by
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pundits and politicos, for whom speculating about potential vice presidential running mates is a quadrennial ritual. Thus was it that Susana Martinez, first woman to be elected gover nor in New Mexico, first Hispanic woman to be elected in any state, enjoyed a flurry of “mentioning” as a prospective Republican vice presidential nominee in the 2012 fall election. For some Republicans, the “demographics” of a Martinezfor-vice-president boomlet were alluring — she’s a woman and she’s Hispanic, two voting
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groups with which the GOP has a somewhat dicey record. Moreover, at the start of 2012, New Mexico was still being billed as a “battleground state” and its five electoral votes might be the margin of victory in a tight race. Now, in all honesty, it was a stretch to believe a Susana Martinez vice presidential nomination had a prayer, and to the governor’s credit she quickly shot all such speculation down. Nor, as political speculation goes, was it a lucid calculation. Even if Martinez had wanted the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket this year, the odds of her getting it were slim. Only four years earlier another woman who had yet to complete the second year of her first term as governor of a wester n state had been the Republican vice presidential nominee, and few GOP big shots were disposed to consider any kind of variation on the Sarah
Palin theme. Neither, for that matter, was New Mexico ever a “battleground state” in this year’s presidential contest. From the moment it became clear Mitt Romney would be the Republican standard bearer against the Democratic incumbent, President Obama, New Mexico was comfortably in the Obama column. That was the case from the first poll to the last. Even if Romney had made Martinez his running mate on the 2012 Republican ticket, it’s unlikely New Mexico would suddenly have become a an up-for grabs “swing state.” Romney didn’t carry either of his “home states” — Michigan, where he was born and raised, or Massachusetts, where he was a one-term governor. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin congressman who was Romney’s vice presidential
running mate, was no help in carrying his own hometown of Wisconsin, which the president carried on Nov. 6. What reason is there to assume the GOP ticket would have fared any better in New Mexico with Gov. Martinez in the No. 2 spot? A number of governors or former governors have become president in recent U.S. history, among them Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. None made it to the White House, however, because they wisely chose another governor from a “battleground” state as their running mate. Which is not to suggest that Susana Martinez’s time won’t come. Only recently, Fox News, Republicans’ favorite news “source,” interviewed the governor about her interest in a 2016 presidential bid. © New Mexico News Services 2012
Federal debt crisis
As we inch ever closer to the fiscal cliff — the package of sweeping tax increases and spending cuts waiting at the new year if Congress and the president fail to act — we encourage all Americans to remember that our current debt crisis is not a complicated matter. It is simply the product of two equally corrosive trends: a federal government that spends to excess and an economy whose continued listlessness results in lower tax revenue for Washington. Any proposed solution that doesn’t address both of those issues won’t be worth the paper it’s written on. The problem with the spending cuts set to take place under the fiscal cliff isn’t their severity. In fact, with the feds doling out over $3.5 trillion this year, the $109 billion that would come out of 2013 spending strikes us a relatively paltry sum. What is problematic, however, is the arbitrary way those cuts are applied. We agree with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that taking roughly half of the proposed reductions from defense — surely the paramount responsibility of the federal government — is an exercise in irresponsibility. Leaving the military less capable of projecting power at a time when tensions are running high in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia is the worst of the many bad ideas circulating around Washington right now. That’s not to suggest that the Pentagon receive immunity from belt-tightening, however. The armed services have a notoriously wasteful, inefficient and costly procurement process. To uncover real savings, however, Washington has to rein in the costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which between them already account for 42 percent of federal spending — a figure that’s projected to swell to nearly 62 percent in the next two decades. While we’d like to see these programs seriously recalibrated along market-based lines, we recognize that political realities will probably only allow incremental change. Still, even minor adjustments, like raising the retirement age or introducing modest means-testing, will get us closer to fiscal sanity than we are today. In addition to serious spending cuts, digging out from underneath our $16 trillion debt burden also requires consistent economic growth. Because virtually all tax increases act to suppress economic activity, we thus find the president’s proposal to hike taxes on high earners counterproductive. The logic of the recent election, however, dictates that the president will likely get his way. There may be some virtue in that if the American people are forced to realize more of the costs of the expansive government for which they voted. Lawmakers, however, would be wise to use the opportunity to spur economic growth elsewhere. A cut in the nation’s corporate tax rate, which, at 35 percent, is the highest in the world and a drag on our ability to compete in a global economy, would be a good start. Some austerity, after all, will be necessary to address the current crisis. Only when paired with renewed economic growth, however, will it become sufficient. Guest Editorial The Orange County Register DEAR DOCTOR K: I’ve made lifestyle changes and take three blood pressure medications, but my blood pressure still isn’t where my doctor wants it to be. What else can I do? DEAR READER: Sometimes high blood pressure (hypertension) doesn’t respond to lifestyle changes and medications. This is called resistant hypertension. It is blood pressure that lingers above target levels despite the use of three medications. And controlling this matters. Heart disease, for example, is much more common in people with resistant hypertension than in people with controlled blood pressure. One factor that may be con-
Government needs to get out of the way Politicians claim they make our lives better by passing laws. But laws rarely improve life. They go wrong. Unintended consequences are inevitable. Most voters don’t pay enough attention to notice. They read headlines. They watch the Rose Garden signing ceremonies and hear the pundits declare that progress was made. Bipartisanship! Something got done. We assume a problem was solved. Intuition tells us that government is in the problemsolving business, and so the more laws passed, the better off we are. The possibility that
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ASK DR. K UNITED MEDIA SYNDICATE
tributing to your resistant hypertension is sleep apnea. In this condition, there are pauses in your breathing while you sleep. If you do have sleep apnea, a type of drug called an aldosterone blocker may help. Some additional steps you can take: — Know your true blood pressure. Check your blood pressure at home a few times
JOHN
STOSSEL SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
fewer laws could leave us better off is hard to grasp. Kids visiting Washington don’t ask their congressmen, “What laws did you repeal?” It’s always, “What did you pass?” And so they pass and pass — a thousand pages of proposed new rules each week — and for every rule, there’s an
a day. Home blood pressure machines are very accurate these days; they’re also easy to use and relatively inexpensive. Home measurements are helpful because sometimes people have normal blood pressures except when they come to their doctor’s of fice. It’s called “white-coat hypertension.” Believe it or not, it even happens with my patients. — Optimize your medications. You’re probably already taking a thiazide diuretic; most people with high blood pressure should be. Many types of drugs can be added to the diuretic. Some people respond better to certain drug types than others. The time of day you take your medications may make a dif ference. So
unintended consequence, or several. It’s one reason America has been unusually slow to recover from the Great Recession. After previous recessions, employers quickly resumed hiring. Not this time. The unemployment rate is still near 8 percent. It only fell last month because people stopped looking for jobs. Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute understands what’s happening. “Add up all the regulations and red tape, all the government spending, all the tax increases we’re about to get — you can understand why
might taking one long-acting drug versus several short-acting medications. — Beware other pills and potions. Some drugs and supplements can boost blood pressure. Ask your doctor if anything you are taking may be having this effect. — Get a checkup. In particular, get checked for conditions that contribute to resistant hypertension, such as several adrenal gland diseases, silent kidney disease and sleep apnea. — Shake the salt habit. People with resistant hypertension may be especially sensitive to the pressure-boosting effect of sodium. Keep your daily intake See DR. K, Page A5
entrepreneurs think: “Maybe I don’t want to hire people. ... I want to keep my company small. I don’t want to give health insurance, because then I’m stuck with all the Obamacare mandates.” We can see our future in Europe — unless we change. Ann Jolis, who covers European labor issues for The Wall Street Journal, watches how gover nment-imposed work rules sabotage economies. “The minimum guaranteed annual vacation in Europe is 20 days paid vacation a year. ... In France, it starts at 25
25 YEARS AGO
See STOSSEL, Page A5
Dec. 13, 1987 Four Chaves County 4-H youth recently represented New Mexico at the Western International Dairy Exposition and eighth annual Dairy Judging Contest in Fresno, Calif. The New Mexico team consisted of Gena Dupree, Rhonda Gilcrease, B.J. Harshey and Billy Scott. The team was among 42 4-H, Future Farmer of America and college FFA groups represented at the competition. Dupree, 14, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Clint Dupree of Roswell, is a freshman at Goddard High School. Gilcrease, 15, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Gilcrease of Roswell, is a sophomore at Goddard. Harshey, 16, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Harshey of Hagerman, is a junior at Hagerman High School. Scott, 16, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Scott of Roswell, is a junior at Goddard.