Griego Attempts Rebranding, Sort Of

State Sen. Eric Griego had an op-ed piece in this morning’s Albuquerque Journal. Griego is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for congress in the first district which means mostly Albuquerque.
Credit to Griego, he's not hiding who he is. That is, a class warrior against "this growing unfair distribution of income and unequal tax system..." and the savior of "children, the elderly, the poor and the disabled.." and throughout, in favor of raising taxes. The op-ed this morning does strike me as an attempt of sorts at repackaging.
Some observations:
About entitlements, all he says is, "..without decimating programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that most Americans support."
In the Wall Street Journal today, John Huntsman, while carefully avoiding saying he supports the Paul Ryan budget and associated reform proposals, makes the point that anyone not liking Ryan's approach has a moral obligation to suggest something else. Griego suggests nothing.
"Besides the recession, The Bush tax cuts are the major reason for our deficits," Griego said. A howler, to be sure.
Point one is a detail, that the recession has been over officially for two years. Point Two is that Heather Wilson, speaking March 25 at the Economic Forum, argued that we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. And she has PowerPoint slides to prove it.
When I hear words such as fair or unfair (unfair distribution, fair share), I always wonder what's fair? With Griego, I think it would equal incomes across the board and much higher taxes on "the rich." Note that the lower echelons of "the rich" include lots of people working for the national labs.
Griego heads the New Mexico outlet of Voices for Children. The New Mexico Voices is part of what calls itself a network and has affiliates (if that’s the right word) in every state plus the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. In New Mexico has been a leader in the pitch for higher taxes and the only really morally proper way (I may exaggerate.. slightly) to combat the state’s multi-year revenue / spending saga.
The Voices for Children material from the past few years will make rich fodder for a campaign.