Talking Points – Page 21 – Coconino County Democratic Party

AZ Ed Funding “a Burning, Heaping Mess”

Arizona funding for education is “a burning, heaping mess.” And, that’s the description applied by a Republican. State Treasurer (soon to be Trump’s head of NASA) Steve DeWit “compared the status of Prop. 123 to telling a person who was hand-building an airplane that the plane will crash, and then watching that person crash the plane […]

Democrats Propose Funding for Infrastructure with a Better Tax Plan

#Ever since Republican’s crammed their tax bill down Americans’ throats at the end of 2017, they have been looking for ways to pay for the $1.5-$2.1 trillion dollar deficit that their new law is projected to create. House Speaker Paul Ryan has his eye on cutting Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. Trump plans to gut […]

Tariffs, Trade Pacts, and Trade Wars

This week Trump announced huge new tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum. He lost his chief economic advisor, Gary Cohn, as a result. More than 100 Republicans in Congress have asked him to reconsider. And, the Republican head of the Senate Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee announced a review that includes asking […]

Republicans Throw Transportation Safety Out the Window

Rules that transportation safety experts have spent years designing are being tossed out in the Republican Administration’s wholesale deconstruction of our federal government. A dozen transportation safety rules under development or already adopted have been repealed, withdrawn, delayed, or put on the back burner since Republicans took over the Executive Branch last year. There have […]

Pelosi Visits Arizona – Delivers Message on Taxes and Deficit

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi visited Arizona this week to deliver this message: The GOP plan couldn’t be clearer: Explode the deficit by passing a Tax Scam that puts the wealthiest first Pretend to panic about the massive deficit fueled by the Tax Scam Use deficit caused by tax scam to take from Medicare, Medicaid, […]

A Gentle Reminder to the Middle Class About the Cost of Health Insurance

We’re reading that some hard-working people are building up resentment because their health insurance premiums have sky-rocketed this year while those who qualify for Medicaid or ACA subsidies don’t have to pay these increased premiums. Here’s our message: You should be mad about this; but please direct your anger toward the cause rather than toward […]

Republicans’ Half-Baked Food Box Proposal Would Hurt the Poor, our State Budget, and Local Economies

Republicans backing Trump’s new food stamps plan have failed to do their research. (SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — is the official name for the food stamp programs.) The plan cuts more than $200 billion from the program over the next decade by replacing debit-like cards that can be used at approved stores […]

Budgeting Gone Wild: Midterm Elections Matter

This is how the federal government’s budgeting and spending is supposed to work Federal Budget Process, National Priorities Project: In November, December, and early January, the Executive Branch creates a proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1 of each year. The President presents that budget to Congress sometime in January or early […]

Update on Sylvia Allen’s View of Morality

State Senator Sylvia Allen (R) says its “immoral” to give workers 3 paid days of sick leave and a minimum wage, but it’s A-Okay to take money from public schools for private charters like the one she runs. Yesterday, a Republican-controlled Senate panel agreed with her and advanced a proposal to reverse the 2016 voter-approved […]

Charter schools bilk you, dump kids and … Republican lawmakers don’t care

Even though they get your tax dollars, Charter Schools don’t have to share financial information or be monitored by the state like regular public schools. They don’t have to disclose how much they pay their administrators, or anyone else. There is no competitive bid process; nepotism runs rampant. Democrats have introduced a series of bills that would, in essence, […]