So much for the possible movement from Arizona Legislative MAGA Republicans on allowing supplemental funding for programs to help children with developmental disabilities.
In a series of events on Tuesday, March 18, Legislative MAGA Republicans first blamed Governor Katie Hobbs’s financial mismanagement for allowing the need for supplemental funding in the first place.
They conveniently forgot their own mismanagement with regard to their Empowerment Scholarship Account program and tax cuts for Arizona’s wealthiest plutocrats.
Asking for legislators to vote for helping these poor children, Democratic House Leader Oscar De Los Santos called out MAGA Republican hypocrisy on this issue, saying:
“We must stop the politics and political games around a life-saving critical program for people with disabilities. Stop the politics. Stop the games. We can have this supplemental passed. Right now! Today, if we wanted to act…There is nothing unusual about a supplemental request. Supplemental requests have been made every single year for the past decade, including under the past, Republican Governor. Hundreds of millions of dollars in supplemental requests without a peep or a word of controversy. No press conference, no floor speeches, nothing. Why? Because it is routine. It is always been done. But now that suddenly there’s a Democratic Governor on the ninth floor, it becomes a problem. Now suddenly, When it’s not ESA asking for a supplemental request, and it’s children with disabilities asking for supplemental requests, suddenly it’s a problem Outrageous! Outrageous!”
Later that day, House MAGA Republicans, with vulnerable children and their caregivers in the House Gallery, ignored them and De Los Santos and blocked a bill that would have funded those needs.
What a disgrace.
MAGA Republicans, in addition to screwing over the weak and vulnerable, did have time to do their other favorite activity at the State Capitol: Trying to circumvent the will of the people in last year’s election by passing three measures to restrict reproductive freedom.
On the MAGA Republican blocking the measure to help disabled children, Democratic House Leader Oscar De Los Santos posted:
Echoing De Santos’s floor comments, Hobbs Communication Director Christian Slater stated in two Gubernatorial office press releases:
“Governor Hobbs produced a balanced budget proposal that secures the border, raises pay for State Troopers and firefighters, combats Veterans’ homelessness, and protects Arizonans with autism, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome. Instead of showing Arizonans a budget plan of their own, Republican lawmakers have gone to the press to lie about the Governor’s budget, refused to enter negotiations, and are holding kids in foster care and Arizonans with disabilities hostage to their political games.
“It’s no wonder they want to hide their budget priorities, Republican lawmakers are already calling for up to 50% cuts to the Department of Developmental Disabilities. Meanwhile, they continue to fight for unchecked spending on their favorite ESA entitlement program, refusing to put common sense income caps on the government handout.
“Instead of lying to their constituents and using vulnerable people as political pawns, Republicans need to stop playing political games and show the people of Arizona their budget plan. And if they don’t have one, they need to pass the Governor’s budget immediately.”
“Republican lawmakers continue to hold Arizonans with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and autism hostage to their political games. Their failure to act is both inhumane and fiscally irresponsible. They’re more focused on scoring cheap political points than delivering services for some of our state’s most vulnerable. It’s time for the Republicans to do their jobs and fund this critical program instead of forcing through drastic, 50% cuts.
“Instead of working to ensure that DDD can fulfill its obligations to everyday Arizonans, Republicans are lying to their constituents and weaponizing routine budget processes to cover for the fact that they refuse to protect the vulnerable people the state serves. It’s time for Republican lawmakers to pass the Governor’s budget and protect Arizonans with disabilities or show Arizonans their budget plan.”
When one of the “philosophical” godfathers of MAGA, Alabama Governor George Wallace tried to block voting access to blacks in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson hauled his segregationist-opportunist ass to the Oval Office and put this question to him:
“George, you and I shouldn’t be thinking about 1965; we should be thinking about 1985. We’ll both be dead and gone then. Now, you got a lot of poor people down there in Alabama, a lot of ignorant people. A lot of people need jobs; a lot of people need a future. You could do a lot for them. Now, in 1985, George, what do you want left behind? Do you want a great big marble monument that says ‘George Wallace: He Built’? Or do you want a little piece of scrawny pine lying there along that hot caliche soil that says ‘George Wallace: He Hated’?”
In 1965, Wallace did back down to Johnson’s pressure.
Sixty years later, his MAGA grandchildren, with their voting against vulnerable children and support of measures stigmatizing innocent LGBTQ children, have decided to hate.
Disgraceful and unworthy of the public servants Arizonans need or deserve.
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