Medicaid on the chopping block

Hard “no” from Dems … Local agencies would be gutted … And Ferris Bueller’s teacher had it right.

On Friday, congressional candidate Adelita Grijalva teamed up with former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, to criticize Medicaid cuts that Republicans in Congress are considering.

At the time, it was mired in a House budget committee with Republicans squabbling over how much to cut out of the federal budget. Late Sunday night, the committee met again and passed the bill¹ extending President Donald Trump’s tax cuts (passed during is first term) while pledging to reform Medicaid.

Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” still has miles to go before a full vote in the House, but the former Pima County Supervisor’s press conference last week is a portend of what is to come for the Democratic stronghold that is Congressional District 7.

Grijalva emphasized Medicaid’s importance in Arizona, noting that it provides coverage for more than 2 million residents — including approximately 357,900 in CD7, which she is campaigning to represent.

“For millions of Arizonans, children, seniors, people with disabilities and working families, Medicaid is more than a program. It's a lifeline. It means a child with asthma can see a doctor. It means a grandparent can afford their medication. It means a parent doesn't have to choose between rent and care. Threats to Medicaid are threats to our communities. And I won't stand idly by while Congressional Republicans try to slash it from everyday people,” Grijalva said.

Medicaid supports roughly a third of Arizona's children, she noted, and more than half of its nursing home residents. It also covers half of all births in the state, Grijalva told reporters.

Grijalva talks about proposed cuts to Medicaid on Friday outside of Kino Hospital, now called Banner University Medical Center South Campus.

Grijalva is one of five Democrats running in a special election to replace her late father in Arizona’s 7th District — a strongly Democratic seat.

Other candidates in the race include former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, social media strategist Deja Foxx, University of Arizona student José Malvido, and businessman Patrick Harris Sr. The Democratic primary is scheduled for July 15.

Grijalva’s campaign organized Friday’s press conference, but the only person present with a vote on this federal budget bill will be Kelly.

Kelly said the bill would likely face further obstacles in the Senate and acknowledged that its fate remained uncertain.

“Every Arizonan, regardless of where they live, who they are, deserve access to quality, affordable health care. But Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress want to slash Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for rich people,” Kelly said.

Giffords also addressed the crowd, reflecting on her recovery following the 2011 mass shooting.

“Our lives can change so quickly. Mine did when I was shot. But I never gave up hope. I chose to make a new start, to move ahead, to not look back. I'm relearning so many things. How to walk, how to talk,” Giffords said.

She endorsed Grijalva, emphasizing the need for strong leadership to fight for Democratic values.

“Change doesn't happen overnight and we can't do it alone. Join me. Let's move ahead together,” Giffords said.

Grijalva echoed that urgency when speaking to reporters.

“Congressional Republicans are currently advancing a bill that cuts $716 billion from Medicaid to pay for enormous tax handouts to millionaires and billionaires,” Grijalva said.

Her opponents in the race also condemned the proposed cuts.

Hernandez told the Tucson Agenda that, if he were in Congress, he would join Democrats in opposing the budget bill. Read his full quote here.

"Republicans will take food off of kids' plates and take away working people's healthcare in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Access to Medicaid quite literally saved my life as a teenager. Growing up, there were times when my family relied on public assistance to get by and put food on the table," Hernandez said.

Foxx, who discussed her experience with Medicaid on her Substack, also spoke out against the bill. Read her full quote here.

“Like so many kids in our community, I grew up on Medicaid. One in four Arizonans rely on it for their healthcare right now. If the Republican budget passes, it would be a disaster for working people across this district,” Foxx said.

The remaining two Democratic candidates, Malvido and Harris, could not be reached for comment.

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Medicaid is just one of the big issues that will be debated in the CD7 race. We’ll be right there through it all. Click that button and join us!

Standing behind Grijalva on Friday was Dan Ranieri, the president and CEO of La Frontera, the largest behavioral health provider in the state

La Frontera serves between 60,000 and 70,000 people a year for behavioral health issues, he said, and cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicaid would gut La Frontera and other mental health providers in Tucson.

“I've been in the field since 1979, so I've been doing this a long time. This scares me more than anything we've had to deal with in my professional career, and that's significant,” Ranieri said. “We're talking about pretty substantial damage, if not destruction, to the whole Medicaid expansion population.”

Medicaid pays for critical programs, including substance abuse services, homeless services and more. The worst-case scenario — that Medicaid expansion as we know it in Arizona simply goes away — would decimate those services, and he predicted that no other state, county, or community agency would be able to take over those services.

“We're in the midst of the fentanyl crisis, maybe the deadliest substance abuse epidemic we've ever had in the history of this country. We're in the midst of maybe the worst homeless crisis we've had in the history of this country — certainly where we live — and 70% of the services available to those folks will disappear,” he said.

Ranieri said if the Republican-backed budget bill passes in its current form, he expects to lay off at least 300 employees and said there’s a 50% chance he would have to close.

“And we're the biggest. So you can imagine what's going to happen to everybody else,” he added.

Once again, the border dominated the news cycle over the weekend. And with good reason. The Trump administration is taking bizarre steps, Pima County is pushing back, and reporters are digging deep.

Heading to court: Pima County is suing the Trump administration over millions of dollars owed for temporarily sheltering legally processed asylum seekers in 2024 and 2025. In the 53-page legal filing, the county, alongside Chicago and Denver, detailed the public and private actions of the Trump administration to withhold funding. For Pima County, the contested amount is about $10 million. Supervisor Rex Scott said in a Friday press release that FEMA has offered “confusing communications about reimbursement requirements” and set “arbitrary response deadlines for ambiguous and conflicting demands.” Federal officials are then “nonresponsive for months.”

Not enough signs: The Trump administration’s gambit to make the U.S.-Mexico border a military installation, which would allow soldiers to detain migrants for trespassing, hit a (legal) wall in New Mexico last week, the Associated Press reported. Federal judges dismissed the trespassing charges in more than 120 cases, saying there’s no way for migrants to know that the land near the border is now a military base. They still can be charged for crossing the border illegally.

Treasure trove: If you wondered where the Trump administration’s obsession with the Tren de Aragua gang came from, Cochise Regional News and Phoenix New Times say they obtained a trove of documents tied to Project 2025 that explains the purpose of that obsession: to put local law enforcement in all 50 states under Trump’s control, with a big dose of Christian fundamentalism, right-wing nationalism, and anti-immigrant sentiment, Beau Hodai reports.

“To the average American, this administration's approach may be reminiscent of an angry monkey hurling shit at a wall,” Hodai writes. “But these anti-immigrant measures echo a plan that was meticulously crafted, out of public view, over at least the year preceding this Trump presidency.”

The odds are not in their favor: This may or may not be part of the Project 2025 plan Hodai is writing about, but it definitely falls into the “you’ve got to be kidding me” category of immigration policies. Department of Homeland Security officials are vetting a proposal to create a reality show where immigrants would compete for citizenship, the Daily Mail reported. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, or “ICE Barbie,” as the Daily Mail called her, is considering a pitch from Ducky Dynasty producer Rob Worsoff to have immigrants travel by train around the country and compete in regional cultural contests, like log rolling in Wisconsin. The winner would get sworn in as a citizen on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Worsoff told the Wall Street Journal “this isn’t ‘The Hunger Games’” for immigrants. Instead, it’s supposed to be hopeful. A DHS spokeswoman said they’re in the “very beginning stages” of the vetting process and Noem hasn’t seen a pitch for the show yet.

Voice of America, silenced: Nearly 600 journalists at Voice of America, which was started in the wake of WW2 to provide pro-America news in repressive countries around the world, got the axe last week and Trump administration put VOA’s building up for sale, the New York Times reports. That comes in spite of the fact that a judge has ordered Donald Trump to maintain robust coverage at the agency because the president can’t just decide to kill an independent agency that Congress has funded. Former TV news anchor and twice-failed candidate Kari Lake, now a senior advisor for VOA’s parent agency was pretty stoked. She announced last week that the station will now run Trump propaganda from the formerly fringe One America News Network.

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While speaking to reporters on Friday, Sen. Mark Kelly either made a reference to 1986’s “Ferris Bueller's Day Off” or revived a 45-year-old quote from then-presidential candidate George H.W. Bush.

“This is voodoo economics all over again. It's smoke and mirrors. It adds a tremendous amount of debt. It's going to come due someday and all to give a large tax benefit to the wealthiest Americans,” Kelly said about the tax cut Republicans are trying to deliver to their constituents.

Sure, we could link to Bush making the quote, but we’d rather hear Ben Stein explain it in the movie.

1. No one in the Arizona House delegation is a member of the Budget Committee. Tucson Congressman Juan Ciscomani sits on the powerful — but entirely separate — Appropriations Committee.