🔥 Congressman Schweikert Admits Conservative Media "Makes Crap Up"

Congressman's Accidental Moment of Truth on DeSimone's Show

This is based on Wake Up Live with Chris DeSimone, a MAGA-conservative podcast in Southern Arizona, which was broadcast by Live The Dream Media on 5/1/25.

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😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
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This article 🎙️ discusses a podcast where people chat 💬 about important issues like money 💰, schools 🏫, and safety 🛡️ in our community. The host and his guests often blame problems on people who don't have homes 🏠 or face mental health challenges 🤯, thinking more police 👮‍♂️ is the answer. They also talk about cutting money for important services ✂️ while giving tax breaks to rich people 💸. The article explains that these solutions don't actually fix the problems ❌, and that we need to help everyone in our community with better housing 🏡, healthcare 🏥, and education 📚 instead of blaming people who are struggling.

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🗝️ Takeaways

• 🏛️ Congressman Schweikert admitted conservative media often "makes crap up" while complaining about deficits his party helped create through tax cuts

• 💵 DOGE's identified $160 billion in savings is minuscule compared to the $2.3 trillion deficit, yet conservatives celebrate it while pushing for more tax cuts

• 🏫 AFP's Kent Strang called COVID a "silver lining" for advancing school choice, revealing how conservatives exploit crises to advance long-standing ideological goals

• 🚓 DeSimone's dehumanizing language about unhoused people and simplistic "more cops" solution ignores root causes of crime and mental health challenges

• 💰 The comparison between QuikTrip security and police wages reveals how ALL workers deserve better pay, not that some are getting "too much"

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Desperately Seeking Sanity: Unpacking DeSimone's Conservative Carnival

A critical deep dive into the May 1, 2025 "Wake Up" podcast with Chris DeSimone

Introduction: The MAGA Megaphone Blares Again

Ah, Tucson — where the desert sun beats down relentlessly and conservative talking points flow like monsoon floods through certain media channels. Thursday's "Wake Up" podcast with Chris DeSimone offered another masterclass in MAGA messaging, complete with the usual suspects and predictable narratives that continue to divide our community rather than unite it.

The May 1st episode featured a parade of guests including Martha from the Friends of the Oro Valley Library discussing their book sale (the lone reprieve from political posturing), Congressman David Schweikert lamenting fiscal irresponsibility while conveniently ignoring his party's contribution to it, and Kent Strang from Americans for Prosperity pushing the familiar conservative economic agenda that has failed ordinary Americans for decades.

Listening to this show is like watching someone complain about a house fire while holding a gas can and matches, I thought as DeSimone's commentary between guests revealed the true undercurrent: fear-mongering about crime, dehumanizing unhoused people, and pushing "tough on crime" narratives that ignore root causes while stoking division.

Let's break down what actually happened in this conservative carnival, shall we?

The Library Lady: A Brief Respite from the Rhetoric

The show began with Martha from the Friends of the Oro Valley Library promoting their semi-annual book sale. While this segment was relatively benign — who doesn't love a good book sale? — it didn't take long for DeSimone to inject conservative talking points even here.

When discussing education and reading, DeSimone quickly pivoted to criticizing modern teaching methods while celebrating a return to phonics-based instruction:

"When they made this change from hooked on phonics, the phonics work, to this sight word crap, all of a sudden third grade reading level started to crash," DeSimone claimed.

Martha added: "Isn't Arizona last in the country in the money it spends on education?"

DeSimone's response was telling: "No, not last, but we're definitely in the bottom seven to ten."

Ah yes, celebrating that we're merely in the bottom ten for education funding — quite the achievement!

DeSimone conveniently ignored how conservative budget cuts to education have created the very crisis he laments. When schools are chronically underfunded, experimental teaching methods sometimes emerge as desperate attempts to do more with less. The conversation about education needs to include adequate funding and teacher support, not just nostalgic yearning for teaching methods of yesteryear.

The segment also veered into a discussion of "National Day of Prayer," with DeSimone suggesting that public officials have "stone hearts" that need to be broken — an interesting metaphor considering the stone-hearted policies his favored politicians typically support.

David Schweikert: The Budget Hawk Who Forgets His Party's Role

Congressman David Schweikert joined the show from what DeSimone jokingly called the "underground tunnels" of the Capitol. Their conversation focused primarily on budget issues, with Schweikert lamenting the lack of fiscal responsibility in Washington:

"We're going to borrow, our best guess is 7.37% of the entire economy this year. Just this year," Schweikert claimed, adding, "We have insane bedwetting around here on cuts that are a fraction of that."

The hypocrisy is staggering. Schweikert complained about massive deficits while conveniently forgetting that Republican tax cuts for the wealthy have consistently blown holes in the federal budget. Remember the 2017 Trump tax cuts that were supposed to "pay for themselves"? They didn't. According to the Congressional Budget Office, they added nearly $2 trillion to the national debt, but Schweikert mysteriously failed to mention that.

It's amazing how fiscal conservatives develop amnesia when it comes to tax cuts for their wealthy donors.

Schweikert proudly proclaimed he could bring "financial reform in three weeks" if given free rein, revealing the authoritarian fantasy at the heart of much conservative thinking. The "if only I could rule unchecked" mentality is a dangerous one in a democracy, yet it's consistently embraced by those claiming to be the Constitution's biggest defenders.

When discussing entitlement programs, Schweikert used the classic right-wing framing, focusing on "fraud and waste" in Medicare and Medicaid rather than acknowledging these programs' fundamental importance to millions of Americans. His complaint about the VA budget increasing — "Last year the spend for every veteran that actually used a VA facility in the entire United States... was $38,800 per veteran" — fails to acknowledge the decades of neglect that necessitated this catch-up funding.

Most tellingly, Schweikert admitted that even conservative media often "makes crap up" to entertain viewers rather than inform them: "I had one of the cable news shows on one of the conservative ones last night. And I wanted to watch the television on a couple of things that were said that just were not true. But it's great entertainment to just lie to people."

This moment of accidental truth-telling reveals the entire conservative media ecosystem's fundamental dishonesty. When your own side admits they're lying to you, perhaps it's time to reconsider your information sources?

Kent Strang: Americans for Prosperity's Standard Bearer

Kent Strang from Americans for Prosperity (AFP) continued the conservative chorus. For those unfamiliar, AFP is a Koch-founded organization dedicated to advancing deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, and dismantling social safety nets – all under the guise of "freedom."

Strang praised Project 2025-aligned DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) while downplaying the meager savings it has identified:

"I think the first 100 days have been a whirlwind, and I think the president certainly focused on securing the border. It's pretty apparent that that has been a success. But for economics, we've seen the work that DOGE has been doing to identify waste, fraud, and abuse. I think that's a win."

Strang conveniently failed to mention that even by their own admission, DOGE has only identified about $160 billion in potential savings — a drop in the bucket compared to the $2.3 trillion deficit Schweikert had just complained about. Meanwhile, extending the Trump tax cuts would add trillions more to the deficit.

It's like finding a quarter under your couch cushion and thinking you've solved your mortgage problems.

Perhaps most revealing was Strang's enthusiastic praise for "school choice" policies – the conservative euphemism for diverting public education funds to private schools, often religious ones:

"COVID really changed the game on this... finally, parents saw what was happening in their schools... and what we're looking at is that that gave parents a larger voice to want choice in their communities."

He celebrated how the pandemic created opportunities to undermine public education, calling it a "silver lining." This reveals the conservative movement's opportunistic nature, using crises to advance long-standing ideological goals rather than helping those most affected.

What Strang didn't mention is how "school choice" often creates a two-tiered education system that leaves behind the most vulnerable students, especially those with special needs or from low-income families. The solution to improving education isn't abandoning public schools — it's properly funding them.

The Crime Narrative: Dehumanizing the Vulnerable

Between guest interviews, DeSimone devoted significant time to discussing a disturbing assault on a student near a Tucson middle school. While the incident itself is certainly concerning, DeSimone's framing revealed the typical conservative approach to crime: demonize vulnerable populations, ignore root causes, and call for more policing.

DeSimone referred to the alleged perpetrator as a "crackhead" multiple times, using dehumanizing language that treats addiction as a moral failing rather than a health issue. He blamed progressive policies for crime increases without acknowledging how conservative opposition to mental health funding, addiction treatment, and affordable housing contributes directly to the problems he decries.

After playing a news report about the incident, DeSimone railed against City Council member Paul Cunningham:

"What the hell? The hell? Cunningham is such an idiot, god dang. He said something about cost saving when whatever he said it's about more cops, jackass."

DeSimone continued: "Paul, ten days ago a 24-year-old woman who was developmentally disabled was raped at a bus stop, right, then Jakem sitting at a bus stop got a hatchet in his neck, Paul. You're such a fool. And you just keep throwing the rest of Tucson like chaff into the fire."

What's missing from this rant is any recognition that simply adding more police doesn't solve the underlying issues. Cities across America have tried the "more cops" approach for decades with little success in addressing the root causes of crime. Meanwhile, programs addressing mental health, addiction, housing insecurity, and poverty — the actual drivers of many crimes — remain chronically underfunded, often due to conservative budget priorities.

If we spent half the energy addressing poverty and mental health that we spend demonizing the vulnerable, imagine the community we could build.

His discussion of the alleged perpetrator's criminal history also revealed a fundamental misunderstanding of competency issues in the justice system:

"So it was dismissed because he wasn't competent to stand trial because he's so drugged out of his mind that they just kick him back on the streets. What the hell? How does that happen?"

This ignorant characterization of competency proceedings demonstrates a complete lack of understanding about mental health in the justice system. When someone is found incompetent to stand trial, it's because they have a mental illness that prevents them from understanding the proceedings against them or assisting in their defense — a fundamental due process protection. It has nothing to do with being "drugged out."

What DeSimone failed to ask is why we don't have adequate mental health facilities to treat people found incompetent. The answer, again, lies in budget cuts to mental health services that conservative politicians have championed for decades.

The QuikTrip Security Officer Wage Comparison: Missing the Point

In a segment comparing salaries for police officers versus security guards at QuikTrip convenience stores, DeSimone attempted to make a point about police being undervalued:

"If you move and want to start with QuikTrip instead of being a Tucson police officer, you will make $6,000 more a year working for QuikTrip as a protective services professional than you would working for TPD."

He failed to acknowledge that this comparison actually reveals how ALL workers in our society deserve living wages.

Instead of questioning why police salaries are low, perhaps we should celebrate that QuikTrip is paying a living wage and ask why other employers (including government agencies) aren't following suit. This is the classic conservative misdirection—pitting working people against each other rather than questioning the system that underpays both.

The problem isn't that QuikTrip pays too much; it's that everyone else pays too little.

The solution isn't to complain about a private company paying decent wages; it's to ensure that all workers — including public servants — receive fair compensation. This might require, gasp, adequate tax revenue and budgeting priorities that value people over corporate profits.

Conclusion: The Same Old Song and Dance with Real Consequences

This episode of DeSimone's podcast follows the familiar conservative media playbook: stoke fear about crime, complain about government spending (except military and police), demonize vulnerable populations, and push policies that benefit the wealthy under the guise of "freedom."

What's missing from this entire conversation is any meaningful discussion of how actually to solve problems. How do we address mental health challenges in our community? How do we ensure everyone has affordable housing? How do we create an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy?

These questions remain unanswered because addressing them would require acknowledging that the conservative approach of tax cuts, deregulation, and increased policing has failed repeatedly. It would require admitting that many progressive policies – investing in mental health services, housing-first initiatives for the unhoused, and strengthening social safety nets – actually work better at addressing the issues DeSimone pretends to care about.

The real victims of this rhetoric aren't just the listeners who are fed misinformation but the vulnerable communities who bear the brunt of policies shaped by fear rather than compassion and evidence. When we demonize the unhoused rather than address housing affordability, people suffer. When we call for more policing rather than mental health services, people suffer. When we cut taxes for the wealthy rather than fund social services, people suffer.

But there is hope. Across Tucson and Arizona, community organizations are doing the real work to address these challenges with compassion and evidence-based approaches. From housing initiatives to harm reduction programs to mutual aid networks, people are building alternatives to the failed conservative approaches DeSimone champions.

By supporting these efforts and rejecting the politics of fear and division, we can create a Tucson that works for everyone. Get involved with local mutual aid groups, attend city council meetings, support candidates who prioritize people over profits, and yes — support independent media like Three Sonorans Substack that provides critical analysis rather than fear-mongering.

Your subscription to Three Sonorans helps keep this vital analysis coming and ensures that alternative perspectives can thrive in our media landscape. Consider becoming a paid subscriber today to support our work.

What do you think about the issues raised in this analysis? Have you experienced the impacts of the policies discussed here? How do you think we should address challenges like mental health, housing, and public safety in our community? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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Quotes:

• "I had one of the cable news shows on one of the conservative ones last night. And I wanted to watch the television on a couple of things that were said that just were not true. But it's great entertainment to just lie to people." — Congressman David Schweikert, accidentally admitting conservative media's dishonesty

• "COVID really changed the game on this... That's a silver lining." — Kent Strang from Americans for Prosperity, revealing how conservatives view the pandemic as an opportunity to undermine public education

• "If you move, if you want to start with QuikTrip, and instead of being a Tucson police office,r you will make $6,000 more a year working for QuikTrip as a protective services professional than you would working for TPD." — Chris DeSimone, unintentionally making a case for higher wages across the board

• "Isn't Arizona last in the country in the money it spends on education?" "No, not last, but we're definitely in the bottom seven to ten." — Exchange between Martha from Friends of the Oral Valley Library and Chris DeSimone, with DeSimone apparently satisfied with being merely in the bottom ten

• "I could bring financial reform in three weeks." — Congressman David Schweikert, revealing the authoritarian fantasy at the heart of conservative thinking

People Mentioned

• Chris DeSimone - Host of the "Wake Up" podcast who referred to unhoused people as "crackheads" and complained that "what's going down in the city of Tucson is just wild baby wild and wacky. The criminals are taking over have taken over excuse me have taken over the streets of Tucson, Arizona."

• David Schweikert - Republican Congressman who admitted "it's great entertainment to just lie to people" about conservative media and claimed he could fix government finances "in three weeks" if given free rein.

• Kent Strang - Managing Director of Americans for Prosperity who called COVID a "silver lining" for advancing school choice policies.

• Martha - Representative from Friends of the Oral Valley Library who pointed out "Isn't Arizona last in the country in the money it spends on education?"

• Paul Cunningham - Tucson City Council member who DeSimone called an "idiot" and "jackass" for suggesting solutions other than more policing.

• Regina Romero - Mayor of Tucson, mentioned disparagingly by DeSimone as having police officers "on a choker collar."

• Chorus Nylander - KVOA reporter whose segment on an assault near a middle school DeSimone used to push his "tough on crime" narrative.

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