Jan Brewer and AZ’s Republicans showing their priorities during the federal government shutdown: tourists and photo ops over poor people

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings

Republicans doing a mean two-step during the shutdown…with the emphasis on "mean"…

Step 1:

From the Associated Press, via KVOA (Tucson) –

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is taking an offer to use state money to keep the Grand Canyon open to the top.

Brewer
and state legislative leaders sent a letter to President Barack Obama
urging him to approve funding the Arizona park and other national parks.

Step 2:

From the Arizona Republic, written by Mary K. Reinhart - 

Policy experts say Arizona appears to be the only state in the nation
so far to have withheld welfare checks because of the federal shutdown,
a move key state lawmakers want Gov. Jan Brewer to reverse.

The shutdown halted funding Tuesday for Temporary Assistance to Needy
Families, which states use to provide cash assistance and other support
for low-income children and parents. Arizona officials announced this
week that 5,200 eligible families would not receive payments, which
average $207 a month.

“It basically means that families who already have very low income,
who are approved and expecting their payments, didn’t get them. And with
very little warning,” said LaDonna Pavetti, vice president for family
income support at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in
Washington, D.C.

So is there a special
room somewhere, maybe the headquarters of the AZGOP, or in the offices
of the local Chamber of Commerce, or even the offices of the Goldwater
Institute, where elected GOPers (and wannabes) have to store their
souls?

…And I know someone who reads this will want
to spout off about how President Obama and the Democrats in Congress are
responsible for the shutdown. 

To that I say –

You can have and express your opinion, even when it is wrong.  Like now. 

However,
what is *fact* is that every statewide elected official in Arizona is
Republican, and they are the ones who have decided to use the shutdown
to deny aid to the poorest in Arizona.

For that, they should be ashamed.

Of course, if any of them had a sense of shame, we probably wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.