There's little joy here over passage of the Big Beautiful Bill and its substantial cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, but there is a long ignored lesson. New Mexico has far too many of its citizens reliant on the welfare state and vulnerable to the whims of Washington. 

Forty percent of the state's residents receive Medicaid--the highest per capita rate in the nation. Twenty-three percent receive food stamps. Any place else these are outlandish numbers but here they are expected, acknowledged and little debated. 

The punishing cuts planned for the programs will not take full effect until after next year's midterm elections so the Republicans can practice dodging the bullet. That also allows time for the state to absorb the shock. 

Significantly, massive surpluses in Santa Fe totaling billions are available to ease the pain of the reductions.

There is little discussion of the hard work and game changing approaches that would be needed to change the state economic dynamic and begin putting on line much better paying jobs and finally disrupt the addiction culture that keeps so many sidelined. But there are shreds of hope that the dependency on the social safety net may ease  in the long term.

Santa Fe District Judge Mathew Wilson has laid out a court-ordered plan for the administration to fulfill the promise of the10 year old Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit that found the state is failing to provide adequate public education to a wide swath of students--mostly Native American and Hispanic--which is thwarting their social advancement and creates generational dependency on the welfare state. 

The other is the passage of a constitutional amendment to fully fund early childhood education for ages 0 to 5, critical years for brain development. The measure providing over $150 million annually took effect in mid-2023 and will take years--not months to deliver the desired results.  

Even with those green sprouts, the legendary inefficiency of the state bureaucracy in implementing them and the traditional lack of aggressive legislative oversight is a major concern. 

Meanwhile, the enduring irony of the state's political narrative continues. With over $60 billion in a myriad of reserves we continue to languish, with a too large proportion of our citizens remain stuck in a quality of life long ago surpassed by the rest of the nation. 

SHOULDERS SHRUGGING 

Here's an update on that other bout of economic turbulence that recently hit the state. 

For Sandia National Labs where as many as 500 layoffs are underway, the labs overall budget will actually move up a smidgen next fiscal year--less than 1 percent--while Los Alamos and its weapon modernization programs mean that budget will skyrocket a stunning 17 percent. 

For Sandia and ABQ the trend is the issue. The subdued response to the layoffs here by the public, press and congressional delegation--(or no response at all) is in sharp contrast to earlier generations who bolted from their chairs at any mention of a budget threat to the labs.

The collective shrugging of shoulders over the layoffs sends a message that they are no big deal and that New Mexico may not be ready for a fight. Future budget-cutters could use that as a guide on deciding whose bread gets buttered. 

Don't say we didn't tell you.

This is the Home of New Mexico Politics.