Has Ciscomani Gone to the Grocery Store Lately? Invite Him Along on Your Next Trip!

By Anne Carl, former Democratic candidate for Cochise County Recorder

Sky-high grocery bills shock and squeeze us, but it’s worse than most realize. We’re relieved to still find some “cheap” canned, frozen and fresh produce, but it’s a ruse. We taxpayers and future generations are all paying through the nose for the deceptively affordable produce items, whether we buy them or not. 

So let’s share how we’re bailing out this administration for its policy mistakes, whether the tariffs and trade wars that raise costs by disrupting supply-chains, or the war on immigrants and their families, who are so vital to food production and our economy writ large. 

We are at war. But as both unwitting participants and victims, including at the grocery store, it can be easy to lose focus. So let’s roughly put this one aspect of our lives into words for all to see and hear, deceptively low produce prices: Growers face a backlog of food in the field. They must process or export it, let it rot, and/or decide to not grow more of it while letting their land and equipment lose value. Each option has costs, and here’s the rub: US taxpayers pay to mask the inefficiencies.

Through growing federal entitlement programs, we pay growers billions to offset their costs and subsidize their operations. 

Take one relatively small example: the USDA’s Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC) program, which covers higher marketing, handling and transport for certain “specialty crops.” [These do not include major field crops like corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and sorghum, for which we pay even more.] Recently, Trump raised USDA MASC’s per-operation payment limit from $125K to $900K. It’s under the radar, but it adds up. Imagine seeing these bailout billions listed on our grocery bills!

Meanwhile, our artificially propping up a system in distress begets more distress. For example, our erstwhile top foreign customers and suppliers are investing in more reliable (read: non-American) trading partnerships.

So as we stand in line at the grocery store or otherwise rub elbows with fellow dazed and/or “relieved” shoppers, let’s engage. Tell them to “snap out of it.” Sound the alarm by explaining our hidden (“entitlement program”) costs, and ask if they’ll mention them to others. 

Ask them, too “Where is Juan Ciscomani?” Or insert the name of your own Congressional Representative. Until Speaker Mike Johnson seats Adelita Grijalva, Cochise County and all of those in Southern Arizona in or near Congressional District 6 or 7 are stuck with only Juan Ciscomani speaking for us, and he certainly doesn’t represent our views. Although Congress could stop Trump tariffs now, Ciscomani has pledged to not even try. Ask those you meet in your store, “Why are we paying them to not work? Why are they ceding power to the President and abandoning common sense, free markets, and the very text of our Consitutiton? And why won’t DOGE stop these actual wastes and inefficiencies…?”

Your questions may spark curiosity that helps upset the algorithm, building bridges and community.

With no check on Trump’s deception, corruption and stupidity, is it any wonder why millions amassed across the country and around the world todemand representation at the “No Kings 2” rallies? Here in Cochise County alone, we had 1,335 Sierra Vistans, and also hundreds in Bisbee and Douglas.

Till the next bigger rally, engage with fellow shoppers. Meaningfully connect. Organize. Invite them to join to resist deceptive pricing, tyranny and creeping MAGA authoritarianism.

Even as inflation continues driving prices up everywhere, “cheap” canned, frozen and fresh produce prices are a carefully crafted illusion. We pay twice and pay dearly. In the absence of free trade and a working democracy to begin to undo the ongoing damage, let’s at least stop quietly participating in the cover-up.