🎙️ Morning Voice Gets Loud: Ciscomani's "Beautiful Bill" and Krueger's Homeless Hustle
How Tucson's conservative radio darlings want to "clean up" the city by criminalizing poverty and celebrating trickle-down economics
Based on the Morning Voice for 5/29/25, a daily radio show in Tucson, AZ, on KVOI-AM. Analysis and opinions are my own.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
🏜️ Some folks on a Tucson 📻 show believe the best way to help their city is to make it 🚫 for homeless people to 🏕️ in 🌳 parks and to have 👮♂️ arrest those asking for 💰 on street corners.
💸 They're thrilled about a new law that lets 💰 wealthy individuals and 🏢 big companies keep more of their 💵, while giving smaller benefits to 👩💼 workers.
🎭 When theater employees wanted better working conditions, the radio hosts got 😠 and warned it could force businesses to 🔒 their doors.
🚗 They have lots of fancy 💡 for fixing parking issues downtown, but for people without 🏠, their solution is basically 👮♂️ arrests and moving them somewhere else.
🗝️ Takeaways
🏘️ Grant Krueger wants to "clean up" Tucson by criminalizing homelessness and increasing enforcement sweeps
💰 Congressman Ciscomani celebrated HR1 passing by one vote, extending tax cuts primarily benefiting the wealthy
🚫 Anti-panhandling hysteria includes claims that giving $1-2 equals "four pills of fentanyl"
🅿️ Complex market solutions proposed for parking meters, while human problems get simple criminalization
🎭 Arizona Theater Company workers voted to unionize 15-4, prompting anti-union fear-mongering
💼 Business owners threaten closures rather than negotiate with organized workers
🏥 Medicaid work requirements framed as "common sense" despite creating healthcare barriers
🚧 Border militarization gets $billions while the root causes of migration remain unaddressed
The Morning Voice Serves Up Some Spicy Takes: A Progressive's Guide to Conservative Radio Theater
Well, well, well, Tucson. Your friendly neighborhood progressive muckraker just finished digesting the latest episode of "The Morning Voice" podcast from May 28th, and let me tell you—it's quite the feast of contradictions, half-truths, and the kind of cognitive dissonance that would make a psychology professor weep into their coffee.
Picture this: You're stuck in traffic on I-10, and suddenly you hear a voice on the radio talking about "summer cleaning" for Tucson. Sounds nice, right? Maybe they're organizing community garden cleanups or neighborhood beautification projects. Oh, sweet summer child—if only.
Cast of Characters in This Conservative Comedy
Our main maestro of mayhem is Grant Krueger, restaurateur and self-appointed voice of Tucson's business elite, joined by his trusty sidekick Matt Neely. The show's crown jewel guest was Congressman Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), fresh from his narrow victory on HR1—you know, that "one big beautiful bill" that's about as beautiful as a strip-mined mountainside.
The topics du jour included their "summer cleaning" manifesto for Tucson (spoiler alert: it involves criminalizing poverty), Southwest Airlines baggage fees (because nothing says "small government" like obsessing over airline pricing), and a healthy dose of anti-union rhetoric that would make Gilded Age robber barons proud.
Grant Krueger's "Civic Pride" Crusade: When Bootstraps Meet Bulldozers
The Homeless Hustle
Krueger launches into his "summer cleaning" segment with the enthusiasm of a suburban dad planning his weekend garage organization project. He reads from a Facebook account called "Revitalize or Die" (subtle name choice there), quoting: "civic pride isn't just about banners. It's about brooms. It's not about the slogans we hang, but about the sidewalks we sweep because pride isn't passive."
Ah yes, because if there's anything our unhoused neighbors need, it's more brooms sweeping them away from public spaces.
The host celebrates recent "sweeps" of the Chuck Huckelberry Loop and calls for more "consistent response" to make it "unacceptable to camp in our parks." Krueger wistfully describes the loop as "one of the most desirable places in Tucson" and "one of the neatest things we have in the entire community"—a 100-plus mile loop where you can bike or walk "without almost ever having to hit a traffic light."
But here's where his narrative takes a sharp right turn into fear-mongering territory: "suddenly the thing that should have been the most exciting parts of recreation and leisure for us and our youth and our pets and everything has become an area where I'm quite frankly afraid to take my daughters on these days, particularly at dusk and even more so after dark."
Let's pause here for a reality check, shall we? When you're afraid to take your daughters on the Loop "particularly at dusk," maybe—just maybe—the solution isn't criminalizing people experiencing homelessness. Maybe it's addressing the root causes like lack of affordable housing, mental health services, and living wages. But hey, why tackle systemic issues when you can just call the cops?
His brilliant solution? "If everybody were to take a bit or a piece, sort of like how we have an Adopt-a-Highway or something like that, we could probably find a way to clean up this amazing resource." Because nothing says "civic engagement" like privatizing public space maintenance while completely ignoring the humans who actually need help.
The Panhandling Panic
Kruger then pivots to his pet peeve: panhandling on medians.
He declares with the confidence of someone who's never missed a meal: "Panhandling has been illegal on the medians in the city of Tucson since forever." He celebrates Pima County's anti-panhandling signs, noting with Matt Neely that "once those signs went up at the intersection in county area... panhandler stop."
Oh, how convenient! Homelessness solved with signage! Why didn't anyone think of this before? Just put up signs and—poof!—people magically stop being poor and desperate.
But wait, there's more. Kruger drops this gem: "You're not helping the individuals when you're giving them money, you're giving them an extra day's worth of fentanyl. As Josh Jacobson from Tucson Crime Free has come out and said, the market price of a pill of fentanyl right now in Southern Arizona is 50 cents. That dollar or two that you give to that individual is four pills of fentanyl right there."
This kind of fear-mongering not only dehumanizes people experiencing homelessness but also perpetuates the harmful myth that all unhoused people are drug addicts. It's the classic conservative playbook: criminalize poverty, then act shocked when poverty doesn't magically disappear.
The real kicker? Kruger's wife "drives around with dog food and little bags in her car to give to these individuals, which is probably better than giving them money for fentanyl." Even his attempt at compassion comes with a side of judgment and assumptions about drug use.
The Parking Predicament: Market Solutions for Everything (Except Human Dignity)
In a rare moment of accidentally correct analysis, Krueger suggests variable pricing for downtown parking, like airlines! He references the "Disneyland model" (though he's quick to note that Walt Disney was problematic "if you were African American or of Jewish descent"—at least he acknowledges that).
"The Disney model would have this large lot that you would park in and then take you into the dense area with some semblance of environmentally friendly or if you're in the city of Tucson reduced or free-fee mass transit," Krueger explains, actually making sense for a moment.
His critique of current parking policy is spot-on: "The street should be more expensive than the garages. There should be and could be variable pricing for the street parking on downtown... The fix for parking downtown is variable rates for different times of the day based on the parking app."
Notice how he can envision complex market solutions for parking meters—complete with dynamic pricing algorithms and app-based technology—while his solution for homelessness is essentially "make it illegal and sweep them away." The cognitive dissonance is truly spectacular.
Congressman Ciscomani: The Art of Threading Reactionary Needles
HR1: The "Beautiful" Billionaire Bonanza
When Ciscomani joins the show (calling in from his garage to hide from his kids—relatable content, honestly), he spends considerable time defending HR1, which he repeatedly calls the "one big beautiful bill."
Because apparently, we're still using Trump's marketing slogans like it's 2016. What's next, describing legislation as "tremendous" and "the best bill, maybe ever"?
Ciscomani explains: "Most people call it the one big beautiful bill. That's how the president branded it. And then it just stuck, and then it became the actual official name of the bill. So in very Trump fashion, you guys are building your brand things and just carrying on with them."
The bill includes extending tax cuts from Trump's first term, which Ciscomani frames as preventing "the highest tax increase, literally in American history." He emphasizes these "aren't new tax cuts" but extensions of existing policy.
Progressive translation: While working families might see small benefits through "no tax on tips" provisions, the real winners are corporations and the ultra-wealthy, who get to keep their massive tax advantages. It's trickle-down economics with extra steps and better branding.
Border Theater: Security or Spectacle?
The congressman proudly touts border funding: "10,000 new immigration and customs enforcement personnel, 5,000 new customs and border protection officers, 3,000 Border Patrol agents, and then also pay for these agents... 10,000 annual bonuses for frontline agents over the next four years."
He shares an interesting anecdote from visiting an ICE facility: "They said in terms of volume, then to the Obama years, the majority of the people that were being sent back were from Mexico or the Northern triangle... He said, now the volume isn't as high, but the, but the danger level of the immigrant that we're deporting is much higher."
This admission that deportations are now "much more expensive" because people are coming from "all over the world" instead of neighboring countries should raise questions about the effectiveness of this approach. But instead of examining why people are fleeing their home countries—often due to U.S. foreign policy—the solution is always more enforcement, more walls, more agents.
The Medicaid Minuet
To his credit, Ciscomani did protect Medicaid expansion in Arizona. However, he frames work requirements as common sense: "If we put in work requirements for people who are, you know, adults with no kids, and they're healthy, and they're receiving Medicaid, that is meant to be for the people in real need."
He explains the requirements: "at least 80 hours a month to either work, volunteer, go to school, whatever it is, you've got to be out there with some activity. If you're again an adult with no kids and you're healthy, I don't think anybody would argue against these people, you know, going out there and finding some work."
This ignores the reality that many people who can't work don't fit neat bureaucratic categories, and that work requirements often become barriers to healthcare for the most vulnerable. But sure, let's make healthcare conditional on proving your worthiness.
The Anti-Union Aria: When Workers Organize, Owners Whine
Theater of the Absurd
Perhaps the most revealing segment was Krueger's hand-wringing about Arizona Theater Company stageworkers voting to unionize 15-4. His response? A cautionary tale about Ron's Produce, where drivers tried to unionize and the owner "closed up his business" rather than negotiate.
"He was an older gentleman, and when his employees said, We're going to unionize, and if you don't raise our rates 15 or 20%, we're going to strike," Krueger recounts. "And you know what Ron did? He closed up his business. He packed up and left and said, I'm close to retirement age.’ I'm done."
Progressive reality check: When a business owner would rather shut down than pay living wages or provide decent working conditions, maybe the problem isn't the workers organizing—maybe it's an exploitative business model that depends on keeping workers desperate.
Krueger's assessment of theater is particularly telling: "Live theater is an antiquated entertainment venue... It's cool in a way that old school things are cool, that, that, you know, maybe don't quite fit inside the box. Like driving around a 1957 Bel Air is cool. You don't daily drive it."
This perfectly encapsulates the conservative mindset that sees arts and culture as luxury items rather than essential community resources. Who needs live theater when you can just watch Netflix, right?
The Minimum Wage Mythology
The hosts repeat the tired conservative trope that higher minimum wages eliminate entry-level jobs. Krueger laments: "I get calls all the time, Matt, where people are like, Hey, I'd love a summer job for my high school son or daughter or whatnot. And I say, man, we're not on Nantucket Island over here. Like summer jobs like are hard to come by."
His explanation? "We employ less bus boys and less hostesses and less server assistance than we did in the past because of these minimum wage increases."
Translation: "How dare we pay teenagers living wages when we used to be able to exploit their labor for pocket change?" The real tragedy isn't that fewer teenagers can get exploited—it's that our economy has been restructured so that adults need multiple jobs just to survive.
Wrapping Up This Conservative Cabaret
The Morning Voice serves up a perfect example of how conservative media operates: take legitimate concerns (downtown revitalization, public safety, economic development) and offer solutions that consistently blame individuals rather than systems, criminalize poverty rather than address inequality, and celebrate market solutions while ignoring market failures.
It's like watching someone try to fix a leaky roof by redecorating the living room—lots of activity, but missing the actual problem entirely.
Krueger and Ciscomani represent a strain of conservatism that genuinely believes it's helping by making life harder for the most vulnerable while making it easier for those who are already comfortable. It's compassionate conservatism with all the compassion surgically removed.
Their worldview assumes that poverty is a personal choice, that homelessness is a lifestyle preference, and that workers organizing for better conditions are somehow threatening the natural order of things. Meanwhile, they celebrate technological solutions for parking meters while proposing arrests and sweeps for human suffering.
A Note of Hope
Despite the conservative noise machine, change is coming to Tucson and beyond. Young people are organizing, workers are demanding dignity, and communities are recognizing that our problems require systemic solutions, not just individual blame. The very fact that stageworkers are unionizing and minimum wages are rising shows that people are refusing to accept exploitation as inevitable.
Every day, grassroots organizations across Southern Arizona are doing the real work of community building—providing mutual aid, fighting for housing justice, organizing workers, and creating the world we want to see. They're not waiting for permission from morning radio hosts or congressional representatives.
The future belongs to those who believe in collective action, not those who think poverty is a personal choice.
Continue to support independent media that tells the truth. Subscribe to Three Sonorans on Substack to keep getting the analysis and accountability journalism that mainstream media won't provide. Your support helps us continue to expose the rhetoric that keeps communities divided while the powerful remain in power.
Get involved locally: Attend city council meetings, support mutual aid organizations, and volunteer with groups working on housing justice. Remember that real change happens when we organize together, not when we wait for politicians to save us.
¡Sí se puede!
What Do You Think?
Ready to dive deeper into this desert dialogue? We want to hear from you:
What's your experience with downtown Tucson? Have you noticed the issues Krueger describes, or do you see different problems that need to be addressed?
How do you think Tucson should actually address homelessness? Beyond sweeps and criminalization, what solutions make sense for our community?
Are you seeing the effects of minimum wage increases in your workplace or community? Do they match the dire predictions from business owners?
What role should unions play in Arizona's economy? Especially in service industries like hospitality and the arts?
Drop your thoughts below—especially if you're tired of the same old "solutions" that never actually solve anything. Let's build the conversation our community needs.
Quotes
Grant Krueger on giving money to panhandlers: "You're not helping the individuals when you're giving them money, you're giving them an extra day's worth of fentanyl... That dollar or two that you give to that individual is four pills of fentanyl right there."
Grant Krueger on Ron's Produce closure: "when his employees said, we're going to unionize and if you raise, you know, if you don't raise our rates 15 or 20%, we're going to strike... He closed up his business. He packed up and left and said, I'm close to retirement age. I'm done."
Grant Krueger on live theater: "Live theater is an antiquated entertainment venue... it's cool in a way that old school things are cool that, that, you know, maybe don't fit inside the box. Like driving around a 1957 Bel Air is cool. You don't daily drive it."
Juan Ciscomani on HR1: "Most people call it the one big beautiful bill. That's how the president branded it. And then it just stuck and then it became the actual official name of the bill."
Grant Krueger on Walt Disney: "I certainly don't worship at the altar of Walt Disney. There's a whole lot of things he did wrong in life, right? If you were African American or of Jewish descent, you don't want to be talking about Walt Disney in 2025."
Grant Krueger on summer jobs: "I get calls all the time, Matt, where people are like, Hey, I'd love a summer job for my high school son or daughter or whatnot. And I say, man, we're not on Nantucket Island over here."
People Mentioned
Grant Kruger - Host, restaurateur with Union Hospitality Group - "civic pride isn't just about banners. It's about brooms"
Matt Neely - Co-host - Discusses parking and panhandling enforcement
Juan Ciscomani - U.S. Congressman (R-AZ-06) - "We got the one big beautiful bill passed... 215 to 214 was the vote"
Josh Jacobson - Tucson Crime Free - Cited for fentanyl price claims
Adelita Grijalva - Former Pima County Supervisor - Leading CD7 Democratic primary candidate
Daniel Hernandez - State Representative - CD7 candidate, "most noted for being on the scene providing aid to Gabby Giffords"
Gabby Giffords - Former Congresswoman - Referenced in context of 2011 shooting
Joseph Blair - Community activist - Creating basketball courts named after his mother Judith Blair
Kyle Kuzma - NBA player - Donated $25,000 to new basketball courts
Paul Cunningham - City Councilman - Quoted supporting basketball court project
Scott Stitler & Rudy Dabdube - Developers - Responsible for AC Marriott and Moxie Hotel projects
Jonathan Mabry - Tucson City of Gastronomy Director - Hiring deputy director
Ally Miller - Former Pima County Supervisor - Quoted criticizing county's real estate purchases
Ron - Former produce distributor - Business owner who closed rather than deal with unionization
Tom Massie - Congressman from Kentucky - "votes no on anything" according to Ciscomani
Walt Disney - Deceased entertainment mogul - Criticized for racism and antisemitism but praised for parking innovation
Have a scoop or a story you want us to follow up on? Send us a message!
