By Terrance Vestal
Las Cruces Sun-News
SILVER CITY — Former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, who will challenge Congressman Harry Teague in November for New Mexico's District 2 seat, said Tuesday the reason he is running is because Washington, D.C., is broken.
“They aren't willing to listen to the people,” Pearce said Tuesday at a gathering at Grant County Republican Party Chairman James Zawacki's home.
More than a dozen area residents attended the meeting and fired questions at the candidate ranging from fiscal issues to health care, to conservatism and energy policies.
Pearce said the current national leadership needs to be reigned in as far as its fiscal policy because “we can't spend our way to prosperity.”
Pearce, who was U.S. representative for New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District from 2002 to 2008, said those in Washington hate jobs on public lands.
"Look at the timber industry, mining, ranching, farming — where are those jobs?" Pearce said, adding that the impact is more acute in rural areas such as Grant County.
While people understand that the country is in a dire economic crisis, it's actually worse than most realize, he said.
“We are seeing permanent unemployment right now,” Pearce said, adding that job-loss figures aren’t reflecting that aspect of the issue. “There are some people who have just stopped looking.”
Pearce said the country right now is locked in “a great cultural battle of values.”
“And I will tell you what my core values are and have always been,” Pearce said. “They are faith, family, freedom and service. I’m going to fight for our way of life. I’m going to fight for our Constitution.”
Pearce, a Republican, said he hasn’t always been happy with the national Republican Party. He said President Barack Obama has been playing chess with Republicans and Obama is “a good chess player.”
“He’s trying to position the Republicans so he can say, ‘We lost health care because you didn’t vote for it,’” Pearce said.
Regarding health care, Pearce said he believes the proposal needs to be simplified from “a 2,000-page bill to a 10-page bill.” He said he believes there should be provisions for portability, in that a person should be able to take his or her insurance from job to job.
There should be lawsuit abuse reform so that doctors wouldn’t have to pay exorbitant costs for malpractice insurance, which only contributes to the high price of health insurance.
He said he would like to see incentives for younger individuals and families to participate in health savings accounts. He said he was against a public option because he believes that businesses would ultimately lose if they had to compete against the federal government.
“And we don't need federal bureaucrats making health decisions for us,” Pearce said.
He said he would like to see reform down in “small bite-sized pieces.”
“And then we watch the trend, and if it works, we keep it. If it doesn’t we can make other adjustments,” he said.
On energy issues, Pearce said he was happy to hear Obama talk about clean coal, off-shore drilling and nuclear power in the president's State of the Union Address last month.
“He can get Republican support here on these issues. Republicans always have supported these issues,” Pearce said. “Now he only has to convince (Speaker of the House) Nancy Pelosi and his own party.”