Rep. Ciscomani votes to cut Medicaid after saying he’d protect it

US Rep. Juan Ciscomani voted last week to pass a federal budget despite opposition from Tucson voters, the Arizona business community, and himself.

Included in the most recent budget resolution are orders to cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid over the course of a decade in order to subsidize a billionaire tax cut. While in favor of the cuts, Ciscomani signed a joint letter by the Congressional Hispanic Conference to US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson sounding the alarm bells over the potential cuts to social services.

“We need to uphold fiscal responsibility while ensuring that essential programs—programs that have empowered Americans to succeed—are not caught in the crossfire,” the letter stated. “Slashing Medicaid would have serious consequences, particularly in rural and predominantly Hispanic communities where hospitals and nursing homes are already struggling to keep their doors open.”

The Congressional Hispanic Conference outlined the following cuts they said would “undermine programs that support working-class Americans:”

• $880 billion to Medicaid and other programs managed by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce
• $330 billion to Pell Grants and other programs managed by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce
• $230 billion to prevent starvation through programs managed by the House Committee on Agriculture

Despite these concerns, six of the letters’ signatories—including Ciscomani—voted in favor of the budget. Ciscomani went a step further, defending the budget resolution and denying it would lead to any of the cuts he outlined only days before.

“Now what I’m seeing is misleading headlines saying that this resolution cut Medicaid,” Ciscomani said of the reports based on his letter. “It didn’t do any of that. Hear from me directly: those are all straight up lies.”

Crafting the federal budget is a lengthy process that begins with an initial resolution, or proposal, that lays the framework for what will be spent and what will be cut. While the final budget is typically very different from this first draft, anything left in it is fair game. Members of Congress have considerable leverage at this point in the budget process, which diminishes as the budget gets closer to its final form.

Ciscomani’s heel turn comes after receiving praise from Tucson residents and local business leaders for initially promising to protect social service spending. In a statement, Arizona Chamber of Commerce CEO Danny Seidon praised Ciscomani’s letter in opposition to the budget, and warned that many of the proposed cuts could cause long-lasting damage to Arizona’s economy.

“Some of the scenarios being discussed in Washington would shift potentially billions in costs to states, including Arizona,” Seidon said. “States can’t print money, so the options available to state lawmakers in the face of deep federal cuts are only bad ones, and they’d ripple across the entire economy.”

Local residents have also been left with legislative whiplash by Ciscomani’s word and deed. In a letter to the Arizona Daily Star, Jeanette Rupel said she contacted Ciscomani’s office and was explicitly told the congressman would not vote for a budget that proposed cuts to programs like Medicaid. And, while the final budget has yet to be voted on, approval of the current resolution was enough for voters like Rupel to feel the sting of betrayal.

“To say I was disappointed by Representative Ciscomani’s vote for the House Budget would be an understatement,” Rupel wrote. “I had spoken to one of the Congressman’s staffers and was assured that Ciscomani agreed not to vote for a budget that cut SNAP, Medicaid, Head Start, and Pell Grants. How can Ciscomani say he proudly represents Arizona when he voted for a budget that would hurt us?”

An increasing number of voters across the country expressed their displeasure with Republicans in Congress, to the point where they have been instructed by political insiders to no longer hold in-person town halls.