Ciscomani Unsurprisingly Parrots the MAGA Propaganda on SNAP Funding and Shutdown

In today’s official Congressional November 4th email newletter from Rep. #CiscoMAGA, Juan continues to lie about the cause of the shutdown, the Democrats’ role, and the reason why Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (i.e. SNAP) beneficiaries are getting shafted (parentheses added):

On November 1st, funding for SNAP benefits lapsed (that’s a very passive way to put it… MAGA cut them massively on purpose in their budget, and allowed them to lapse during the shutdown, despite the available contingency funds already allocated to the purpose). Senate Democrats have rejected attempts to fund SNAP benefits 14 times (an interestingly misleading way to frame Dems’ refusal to give their votes to approve the PERMANENT cuts to SNAP and ACA subsidies that MAGA demands). Because of this, recipients of the program right now do not have usual or guaranteed access to keep food on their tables (No, the reason is that MAGAts like CiscoMAGA want to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest at the expense of working and middle class folks like you).

While some ARPA funds were found (again the passive construction elides the fact that Gov. Hobbs is the one who ‘found’ the funds – just $1.8m to be exact) to support Arizonans who are without food assistance, this will not fund the entirety of the program, and it will, unfortunately, still leave some Arizonans wondering how they will feed their families (No, Trump’s Regime tried to stop the Congressionally approved emergency $5B in funds held by the USDA from being allocated to cover SNAP during the shutdown – that’s why some Arizonans are going hungry). $1.5 million will be allocated to food banks across the state to fill gaps for SNAP households seeking food, and $300,000 will be deployed to Food Bucks Now, an emergency fresh food program (again thanks to Gov. Hobbs, and NOT Trump’s Regime, or the MAGA Congress, or our MAGA State Lege).

Again, this funding is a temporary emergency measure, not a replacement for full federal SNAP benefits (That’s accurate, but leaves out the fact that Democratic states’ Atrorney Generals, including AG Mayes, had to sue the Trump Regime to force the release of billions in contingency funding of SNAP). That’s why, I firmly believe we need to get the government up and running immediately, so Congress can return to negotiating year-long spending bills (well, the shut down is 100% the result of Trump and MAGA Congress’ REFUSAL to negotiate to gain Dem votes in the Senate to pass the budget, so RETURNING to negotiations is a poor description of where things stand) and stop the food insecurity impacts on our families in Arizona and across the country (except that if Dems do acquiesce to the MAGA budget, SNAP WILL be cut severely and permanently for Arizona families).

CicsoMAGA relies heavily on the ignorance of the average voter to get away with such mischaracterizations, outright lies, and damned lies. Don’t be ignorant and don’t let those in your social ambit be ignorant enough to buy his bullshit.

Truth One: The MAGA budget plan (HR 1 or One Big Beautiful Bill, of which I analysize the effect on Arizona’s budget and economy here) will cut hundreds of millions of dollars in SNAP benefits for Arizonans permanently. It is a nasty irony that MAGA seeks to use the cutting off of SNAP benefits to pressure Dems into providing the votes needed to pass their horrible budget – which cuts SNAP, among other major cuts!

Truth Two: Congressional contingency funding for SNAP is a reserve mechanism designed such that if regular appropriations lapse (for example, during a government shutdown), the USDA can draw on a dedicated contingency fund to keep benefits flowing, at least for a short period. That fund sits at about $5B, which the Trump Regime sought to sequester illegally to increase pressure on Dems, instead of covering SNAP for roughly two to three weeks. The courts have ordered those funds released, thanks to AG Mayes and other Democratic states’ Attorney Generals. The Trump Regime has instead arbitrarily decised to only cover SNAP at 50% of current benefits – I guess because MAGA has no intention of ending the shutdown any time soon, although that is entirely within their power if they simply negotiated for needed Dem votes in good faith. CiscoMAGA leaves these facts, and the court order to allocate those funds, out of his official propaganda entirely. Wonder why? I don’t.

Truth Three: MAGA doesn’t have the Senate votes to pass their budget, because it is not budget neutral (adding ~$3.5 Trillion to the deficit) and includes many non-budgetary provisions, so they cannot use the filibuster execption for budget reconcilliation under the ‘Byrd Rule’. This is why Trump is making noises about ending the filibuster to pass his Orange Billionaire Bastard Budget Bill. This shutdown and impasse is WHOLLY caused by Trump refusing to negotiate for the Dem votes he needs to pass cloture in the Senate. Instead, Trump and the MAGA Congress continue to insist that the government be reopened prior to any negotiation, which seems rasonable until you understand that if Dems vote to pass HR 1 through the Senate, there is no longer anything that the fascist MAGAts need to negotiate about. If Dems acceed to the passage HR 1, thereby reopening the federal government under MAGA’s budget, MAGA will again simply refuse to negotiate – why would they, having already achieved their aim? They are demanding unilateral surrender, not a good faith gesture to begin negotiations. They have already completely refused negotiations PRIOR to the shutdown, why would they negotiate AFTER they get everything they want?

We live in a propaganda-laden news environment. Major news outlets have been pressured and compromised to simply report the official lies unfiltered and unchecked. Meanwhile, we have long allowed corparate conglomerates to control the vast majority of mainstream news sources, and they do not find it in their financial interest to tell Americans just how much Trump and MAGA have suceeded in damaging and dismantling our democracy. Please support independent news and opinion in your communities who continue to tell you the unvarished and independent truth about our situation: that includes BlogForArizona, of course!