New Mexico's Hypocritical Conundrum

New Mexico’s Hypocritical Conundrum - 5/18/2026

New Mexico has a political conundrum. It’s a democratic stronghold and the first state with universal child care. Liberals supposedly love green energy and hate fossil fuels – until you follow the money. Thank to higher oil prices, the state is temporarily experiencing a huge financial windfall. Like all governments which experience a windfall, the debate is on how to spend the money, not on how to return it or save it for unforeseen outlays.

New Mexico produces more oil than any other state excluding Texas. The state’s revenue from taxes, royalties and lease sales helps cover the cost of college tuition, all school meals, health insurance and a new initiative for free universal child care. So in a state full of liberals, who generally preach clean air, we find a strong dependence on… fossil fuel revenues.

Oh! Let’s not forget. Democrats almost always oppose war… at least when the Republicans are in office in D.C.? Without the war, revenue from rising oil prices would not be seeing a boom. So yes, even liberals benefit financially at the death of innocent lives.

“It’s hard for people to think about, ‘Oh great, we have this windfall,’ and children are getting killed on the other side of the world,” said Deb Haaland, former U.S. Interior Department secretary running for governor. Assuming she keeps the money, like the present Governor is doing, she too, helps the military industrial complex get richer at the cost of innocent human lives. It would also make her a hypocrite, because Haaland worked to limit unfettered oil and gas exploration while serving in President Joe Biden’s Cabinet.

For the record, she’s already stated she’ll use the windfall, not to return it to taxpayers or to lower taxes, but to increase New Mexico’s child tax credit and boost the refundable working families tax credit - payouts that would mostly benefit people with low incomes. In other words, more socialism, and more dependence. New Mexico already has an indigenous population dependent on handouts due to past atrocities and policy, so why not the rest of its residents? It’s shameful, especially from someone who is trying to be the country’s indigenous governor.

How much money is at stake? For every $1 fluctuation in the average annual price of oil, the state sees about a $59 million swing in financial confiscation. This fiscal year’s windfall is likely to be $850 million - equivalent to 12% of annual general fund spending. Since oil fluctuates regularly, revenues shouldn’t be used for never-ending spending, but for emergency outlays.

So in a nutshell, liberal-heavy New Mexico, with larges swaths of extreme poverty and the nation’s highest enrollment rate in Medicaid, loves fossil fuel revenues coming at the expense of innocent lives in a conservative president’s needless war.

Here’s an idea. The state’s Native tribes have already seen their health affected by the negative effects of uncapped uranium mines that still dot the state’s landscape. Maybe they should fix that wrong before building even more dependence on the Overlords.

Source used: Associated Press