Talking Points – Page 20 – Coconino County Democratic Party

Facts Not Slogans Support Invest in Ed Initiative

A letter written by Ann Heitland and published in today’s Arizona Daily Sun lays out the arguments on both sides of the Invest in Education initiative, for which petitions are circulating now. On the one side, there are fiscal facts; on the other are tired old slogans: The opponents of the Invest in Education Initiative have […]

Significant Policy Statements from Arizona Democrats in the Legislature

We need more Democrats in the Arizona legislature to work on policies like these: “Nothing this administration hopes to gain from this draconian policy is worth the cost to a child who now must live in fear of never seeing his or her parents again.” Excerpt from AZ House Democrats’ letter to Department of Human Services […]

Update on Ballot Initiatives: Supporting Democratic Values

Newcomers to Arizona from eastern states often wonder what all the fuss about ballot initiatives is. Arizona became a state at the height of the Progressive Era in American history so the populist principle that citizens could initiate their own laws was enshrined in our State Constitution. Republicans in the legislature have tried to undermine […]

House Democrats Support Educators, Vote to Reject Inadequate and Unsustainable GOP Budget

The Arizona House and Senate Democrats fought hard last night for education in this state. They lost every vote. Ducey calls what came out “bipartisan” — which would be laughable if the lie didn’t fall off his lips so easily. What really happened is that Republicans in the Arizona Legislature tried to scam the people […]

Democrats Don’t Need New Ideas

After all, Republicans have had the same three bad ideas for three decades: “tax cuts for the rich, slashed benefits for the poor, and more pollution. Paul Ryan 2010 was basically Newt Gingrich 1995 with a lower BMI, yet he got praised endlessly as an innovative thinker,” writes Paul Krugman, Nobel-prize-winning economist. “There are huge […]

“We Don’t Need No Education”

Thanks to Nobel-Prize-Winning Economist Paul Krugman for writing yesterday’s column in the New York Times explaining why Republicans ended up at war with America’s schoolteachers. Here are some excerpts: “At the state and local levels, the conservative obsession with tax cuts has forced the G.O.P. into what amounts to a war on education, and in […]

Choose Medicare: A new route to better healthcare for all Americans

“We have here in America a system right now called Medicare in which we have a popular, affordable, high-quality health-care option,” Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said. “Shouldn’t every American deserve the opportunity to participate in such a plan? Why reserve such a plan to individuals who are 65 or older?” Why not, indeed! Democrats are […]

Coconino Voices: Gov. Ducey already knows how to subtract

Local teacher and progressive, Derek Born, has this almost right. What he says about Ducey’s fake support for education is spot on. But, it’s not enough to just subtract our votes from Ducey’s column. We have to add votes for the Democrat who opposes him — or Ducey will win again. It’s critical that people […]

Trump Plan to Privatize the VA Disclosed

Parting words from the fired VA Director reveal the Trump plan to privatize (and thus reduce funding for) Veterans’ Healthcare: “I believe differences in philosophy deserve robust debate, and solutions should be determined based on the merits of the arguments. The advocates within the administration for privatizing V.A. health services, however, reject this approach. They […]

Census Citizenship Question

Trump’s Commerce Department is reinstating a citizenship question to the 2020 Census for the first time in 70 years. This is a craven attack on our democracy and a transparent attempt to intimidate immigrant communities and reduce representation in blue states. The census is a constitutionally-mandated count of all U.S. residents, not a political tool […]