Last September, Lujan Grisham took the final step, announcing that New Mexico would be the first to open its subsidized day care to any family, a move estimated to save families $13,000 a year per child.... The announcement was met with applause and cheers, but behind the scenes, state legislators — who said they had not been informed that the program would become universal — were confounded, along with some members of the department’s own staff.
“We were all shocked,” said state Sen. George Muñoz, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “Nobody knew about it until the day it was in the paper. All of a sudden we were all calling each other, saying, ‘Where did this come from?’ ‘Did anybody from the governor’s office talk to you about it?’ Nope, we were all in the dark.”...
September 9, 2026
"We’re building a rocket ship as we fly it."
Said Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Governor of New Mexico, quoted in "One year into free child care in New Mexico, too many kids and not enough slots/In a first-in-the-nation experiment with universal child care, demand is outpacing availability and costs are soaring" (WaPo).
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98 comments:
The failure of her metaphor lies in the simple fact that she is a Democrat, and SpaceX is engineers. Crash and burn for the child care in 3, 2, 1....
"One year into free child care in New Mexico, too many kids and not enough slots"
Well, who could have possibly seen *that* coming?
They’re building a rocket ship as they fly it, but apparently somebody forgot to calculate in that there’s such a thing as gravity. Or have they never heard of a price/demand curve.
"Costs are soaring," but market forces will not be allowed to act on them because it's FREE! Right?
Costs are soaring for all New Mexicans whether or not they need childcare. Just as all New Yorkers contributed to that one woman's hearts-desire jacket (and the rest of the $200,000 she didn't have to pay), whether or not they had student loan debt.
They will shortly run out of other people's money.
Vote for Me and Everything's Free !
She's promising SpaceX and delivering Boeing.
She's a Dem.
Program Success is measured by intent rather than effectiveness.
It's a great success, she's a great governor
Did any of the ‘lawmakers’ read the bill before voting as they were instructed? Where did the budget authority come from? Or is that self-evident in question one.
There is no free lunch in the Universe.
Math is hard.
Ya beat me, FredSays.
They had to pass the bill so they could find out what was in it. Where have I heard that before?
You know what they call people who build rocket ships as they fly them? "The honored dead."
"If you put government in charge of the Sahara in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand."
"Demand is outpacing availability" for something that's "free."
That's only true of everything. But maybe this will be different.
Affordable child care: mother, father, grandparents, etc, or a neighborhood cooperative, perhaps in turns.
…well done all…and what ding dongs the legislature are. Holy carp! I’ll just add that they need to stop thinking of these universal programs as ‘first in the ______’ experiments. There is sufficient data from humanity on these programs to know the outcome before approving them…
Building a rocket as you fly it is not a good idea. Rockets can disassemble themselves rapidly and catastrophically while at high altitudes. Ask Crists McAuliffe.
There is no rational reason to make it universal. And how could the governor do that without legislation allowing it?
An Econ 101 price/demand curve could have predicted this.
If state legislators didn't know the program would become universal, how did it become universal? New Mexico's governor can change law on her own?
Governor learns that Free is a slogan.
Families (with children) will save an estimated #13K/year, but the increased taxes will soon erase those annual savings.
They're building a rocket ship without an environmental impact assessment?
All this universal welfare is going to bankrupt us.
Some of it is fine and we need to sure it up.
Most of it is so penetrated and set up for use as democrat party fraud and pocket lining - the fraud filled entitlements will end up breaking us. But that is a bonus for the corrupt left.
@Tom T., Won't someone think of the amphibians!?!
Yeah
Cause he's a rocket frog
Rocket Frog!
Burning out this fuze down here alone!
And I think "going out this way should be a crime!"
If you think (fill in the blank) is expensive now, just wait until it's free.
h/t P.J. O'Rourke
“"We’re building a rocket ship as we fly it."
Said Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Governor of New Mexico”
And apparently she thinks that’s a good idea. Well, girls can’t be expected to know all that sciencey stuff. Math is hard!
Classic bureaucracy in action:
> Poor planning even though it was sold as top concern of working moms
> Inadequate assessments of the scale and scope of the need even though they promised to “save families $13,000 a year” which is a helluvan incentive (leftists have a genetic inability to consider incentives)
> Now they can’t meet demand and unexpectedly (because they refuse to understand incentives) costs are soaring!
It’s the same story every time. Bureaucracy is the uniparty’s best friend.
Trust my babies to a program they are building as they fly it? Expanding too fast, hiring unvetted or unqualified staff? Not having programs in place? NO THANK YOU! And yet we keep trusting the government to manage things well - at least some of us do. I mean we've already seen how great a job they are doing with the older kids in public schools.
One of my biggest pet peeves at work was when someone in management would tell us to do some new project, but they hadn't done any of the logistical work first to make sure that we had what we needed to get the job done. So there would be lots of long hours, lots of runs to Home Depot and lots of half assed work that produced an inferior product for more money than it would have cost just to plan it out and do it correctly. I was famous for being the Negative Nancy who would start pointing out all the logistical things that we needed in place first before we should start doing projects; so my boss just stopped asking for my opinion on things.
In a sane world the poeple implementing something like this would do some trial runs. Maybe set up daycare in a few locations, get a feel for how much it will cost, find the pitfalls, fix them, then expand it statewide. But then, most politicians are political science majors or they studied "communications" whatever that is. They've never actually managed anything, not even a Burger King. The smart thing to do would be to contract the work out to a handful of established providers, evaluate, then use their expertise to expand.
40 years ago I was a general manager of some Burger King stores. We were having trouble finding people to work during the daytime hours. I wrote a proposal asking the owner to hire and train daycare workers and provide it to moms who wanted to work. I could see there were plenty of young single moms who would work if it made sense financially but playing for childcare out of a minimum wage paycheck didn't pencil out. All I got from the bossman was a blank stare. I guess he knew more than I did as a young guy just starting out. He didn't even bother to tell me all the reasons why it would never work. I suspect it had something to do with $10 burgers.
If you sense a contradiction above let me help. There’s a certain breed of Republican, the old go along to get along type like the Bushes and the McCains. When politically convenient they will pretend not to understand incentives the same way leftists do. Very much like the woke suddenly not being able to define words like woman or life or mother, like they can’t understand the question.
But many Democrats are aware and understand incentives and build them into systems like SNAP, Medicaid and the California voting rules, but they incentivize cheating not productivity by making the benefits “shall-issue” (to borrow a 2A term) no documentation needed while erecting barriers to anything that can flag the fraud. So they **can** understand incentives but most choose not to in order to avoid any discussion of them.
"I like to be in New America!
O.K. by me in New America!
Everything free in New America
For a small fee in New America!"
It turns out that having the men work and make decent money, and the women staying home had certain advantages, from making men more "marriageable" to women to dealing with childcare. but that's OK, we will just import our children from the countries we bomb!
I vaguely remember certain problems in math class that could not be solved unless you held one or more variables constant. Too bad real life doesn't work that way.
"It’s the same story every time. Bureaucracy is the uniparty’s best friend."
Yep. Now, instead of just paying for childcare, taxpayers are paying for childcare + a bureaucracy to run the "free" programs.
$13,000 sounds about right for full time childcare expenses, but how much is the state spending to save that $13,000?
"a move estimated to save families $13,000 a year per child."
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Savings.
Guarantee within a year, will cost govt $20,000. per year to save $13,000.
Me? I'm just an old retired engineer. But I managed to squeeze in five Econ courses on the way to my degree. And I've followed economics ever since as an area of interest. No Krugmanesque PhD for sure. But each and every con course I took and my subsequent experience leads me to on FIRM rule:
The law of supply and demand can not be ignored.
So, lots of demand and high cost? Well, sez the left, let's make it free. (aka spread the cost around to everyone.)
Instant result? Much greater demand, static supply.
Next level result? Costs soar. Supply increases. But much of it is "Learing Centers" and or actual day care, but of low quality.
From there the results branch into rampant fraud, regulations intended to improve quality but actually increase cost and graft.
Final result? Voters for the left, bought and paid for. Higher costs. Higher taxes. Massive, permanent, layers upon layers of government and government funded workers (Well, not actually workers. But rather those who garner pay.). Programs that will never die.
They knew this was going to happen, but they also knew once started, that there will be outrage if it is not continued so the money must be found.
Hire Somalians, they have expertise.
Watch out NYC, Mamdani wants free childcare as well.
Sounds like a government program that Nick Shirley might be interested in.
Obamacare Redux.
Still, it's good that it happened. Going into the midterms, people need a reminder that government can't do anything and doesn't make anything cheaper.
"$13,000 sounds about right for full time childcare expenses, but how much is the state spending to save that $13,000?"
"Look...Mr. Samsonite...those are just as good as money. Those are IOUs." - Floyd Christmas. Money printer go brrrrrrrrrrr
If they are this stupid, then what is the likelihood they have safeguards that prevent fraud?
Leland said...
"If they are this stupid, then what is the likelihood they have safeguards that prevent fraud?"
Safeguards? Isn't the easy fraud pretty much the purpose of these things? It's just another redistribution to the clever and connected.
as Maggie said; “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money”
The Democrats will next announce their plan to air condition the Sahara Desert. The skeptics will once again be hard hearted greedy Republicans.
"We're building a rocket ship as we fly it."
That's a politician admitting that she failed to plan ahead, and she has no idea what she's doing, and that the whole thing is doomed to crash.
What a stupid soundbite! Who wants to be on a ship that is being constructed in the middle of the air?
New America ought to be renamed New Communism.
It's never been tried before!
To top it off, the program accepts illegals. The good news, for politicians anyway, is that that the state doesn’t publicly release the number of illegals receiving taxpayer assistance..
So providing “free” childcare to some has driven up the cost to others?
Whoda thunk it?
It's not FREE childcare.
It is childcare paid for by holding a gun to someone's head and forcing them to pay for it.
There is no moral difference between using the government to hold the gun and holding it oneself.
The latter is more honest, though.
John Henry
The moon is said to be made of cheese. Green cheese, no less.
The internal polling must be bad, right? It sounds like the rest of the Democrat party in New Mexico is trying to disassociate itself from what the governor has done.
She's not running for re-election. Term limits, I think. So now that the Democrats are providing free daycare for all, they're blaming the lame duck. She did it on her own.
JAORE said...
" Me? I'm just an old retired engineer."
"An engineer is someone who can do for 10 shillings what any fool can do for 20." - Nevil Shute in "Slide Rule: Autobiography of an Engineer"
John Henry
This has probably been pitched as a way to look after the kids so Mom can go out and work. But it also is a way to look after the kids so Mom can hang out in bars.
It seems massively inefficient. By making it free and universal, they're not only assuming the costs of providing daycare to families who are currently willing to pay a thousand dollars a month for it, but also families who wouldn't pay $100/mo., e.g., families with a stay-at-home mom or dad who'd just like the convenience of being able to drop off the kid for a couple of hours here and there to go to book club or the gym, but would never pay out of pocket to enjoy that convenience.
The headline of the story is Nannies for Millionaires. This is in the WaPo!
Blue Newspaper Tells Blue State You Are Anti-Democratic and Pro-Millionaire
They took the headline from Republican talking points. Holy shit. Communism must be stopped and Jeff Bezos is on it.
"Welfare is unpopular."
"Well, let's give it to everybody."
"That will fix it."
"That's a politician admitting that she failed to plan ahead, and she has no idea what she's doing, and that the whole thing is doomed to crash."
Be careful, that's awfl misogynist sounding. It was you throwing green dildos on the court during WNBA games, wasn't it?
It's almost like Karl Marx flunked an economics class
AI says he never flunked an economics class because he never took one.
The scary thing is that AOC has an economics degree, and she's still a Marxist.
"I want the class without any math."
You're supposed to demonize the millionaires, not given them free childcare. Worst socialist ever.
"state legislators — who said they had not been informed that the program would become universal . . ." So the governor proclaimed this? No Queens!
It was you throwing green dildos on the court during WNBA games, wasn't it?
No. That's how you get your name in the paper. Carmichael Caught On Video Buying Green Dildos
Carmichael Caught Smuggling Green Dildos Into WNBA game
Carmichael and His Blue Dildo and His "I Love Sophie" T-shirt Ejected From WNBA Game
Sophie Rejects Carmichael and His Purple Dildo: "I Want a Real Man".
These things can backfire horribly. Or so I've been told.
Sounds more like they are building a submarine while they are diving.
“"We’re building a rocket ship as we fly it."
Said Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Governor of New Mexico”
And apparently she thinks that’s a good idea. Well, girls can’t be expected to know all that sciencey stuff. Math is hard!"
And rocket science is harder!
I am just guessing that the "universal" part is not what is actually in the authorization. The hard part is that someone has to tell all of the people who believed the governor that the "free" childcare that they relied on is not available to them. In the middle of September. After school has started.
The alternative is to raise taxes. Any bets on what happens?
I'm saying it's the latter.
It has to be funded out of a certain fund, and the amount per year is $700 million. So its not "universal child care". $700 million divided by $13,000 per kid is 53,846 kids. And that's before fixed expenses to run the program.
And why should the tax payer subsidize working moms. Force the businesses and corporations to do it.
I’m shocked, shocked to see an American politician wingin’ it half-assed.
We were all shocked,” said state Sen. George Muñoz, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
Every dollar spend has to be approved by the Legislature. What is he talking about?
𝘉𝘪𝘨 𝘔𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥...
𝘉𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢.
Actually, that's why Space-X is way ahead of it's competitors. It's a great way to quickly find the weak points and fix them. Studying everything to death is why we don't have a permanently manned moon base.
As for childcare and tax credits and all that- standard single deduction is $16,100 (according to google), married filing jointly, $32,200. A dependent is another @1,350. A value less then 10% of the adults.
Make each under 18 person in the household $16,100 and you'd find having children more desirable among actual working people.
For several years I had 6 under 18s at home- 7*16100=112,700. Having children 𝑵𝑬𝑽𝑬𝑹 makes financial sense for a household. We have children for other reasons. If the government wants more children, no real need to subsidize them. Simply don't tax them. Having each child deductible at the same rate as me and my wife and I would have paid virtually no taxes with 5 in the house. Would have made them much more affordable.
5 children at home, not 6.. Proofreading is much easier after you hit send...
TANSTAAFL
Gee. Who saw this coming?
@Goepace, but we’re Musk and his top engineers aboard those rockets? And were they tightening bolts and screwing down screws?
Gospace,
That is not remotely what SpaceX is doing. Each rocket that they test fire is as fully built as it is going to be at that point.
What is different about SpaceX is that they iterate these designs much more quickly, and are much more willing to fly something at the current stage of design, rather than trying to get the design perfect on paper first. It's the fail faster concept, and it really does work, but again it is not remotely building the rocket while it flies.
Hmm. The governor took a lesson from the success of SpaceX. Launch before you are sure it will fly. But she wanted to innovate, cuz there's no glory in being a follower. So she loaded the entire state population aboard her first Proof-of-Concept vehicle. Glory for sure!
Where's IEEE to tell us how this is working as designed and wonderful and only evil people are against it?
"Where's IEEE to tell us how this is working as designed and wonderful and only evil people are against it?"
Maybe he was on the rocket?
New Mexico Gov.: “Minnesota is getting way ahead of us in the graft department. What economically retarded programs can we cook up and implement before anyone notices?”
“New Mexico Gov.: “Minnesota is getting way ahead of us in the graft department."
A graft gap?
“The scary thing is that AOC has an economics degree, and she's still a Marxist.”
…point of order- AOC has a concentration in economics from BU and when she was attending you didn’t need micro or macro to receive. She took leftist courses like the economics of climate change and economic policy of minorities…you know- garbage with nothing in common with economics…
Kirk Parker said...
What I said but in a different manner.
This article from 2023 list their explosions up to then: https://www.space.com/every-spacex-starship-explosion-lessons-learned
The important thing about each of them- lessons learned.
Another grift opportunity turns into a money pit. Politicians express surprise. But the only surprise is that anyone is surprised. Of course the only losers are the taxpayers who pay the tab for this fiasco.
"Of course the only losers are the taxpayers who pay the tab for this fiasco."
Based on where people are moving to and from, it appears that taxpayers are figuring this out.
Democrats are just stupid people.
The only way to have Free Healthcare is through Slavery.
6 deductions... 5 plus the wife. Wow, what a taker.
Kids cost a society more money than singles. Pay taxes for roads and to educate your kids, at least, cheapo studs...
Do components for rocket building flying along on their own?!/
Why, in Heaven's name, is the government paying for (or even subsidizing) child care?
Let women stay home and murder their own babies.
democrats have destroyed New Mexico. First in crime, last in education ... by every matrix, NM is a failed state.
It would be cheaper just to launch the kids into space.
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