🏛️ Arizona's "Oprah Budget" Drama: Senator Leach Complains About Spending While Demanding His $5 Million Share | WAKE UP LIVE
From debt fear-mongering to crime panic, this podcast reveals the conservative propaganda machine in action
This is based on Wake Up Live with Chris DeSimone, a MAGA-conservative podcast hosted by a mayoral candidate for Oro Valley, podcasting from Marana, perpetually hating on Tucson, brought to you by Live The Dream Media on 5/15/25.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
🎙️ A podcast called "Wake Up" with host Christopher DeSimone discussed various topics impacting Tucson. The host featured several guests, including politicians 🧑💼 who talked about government money issues 💰, a report on crime in Tucson 🚔, and guests who promote healthier eating habits 🍎. The host and most guests shared only one side of these topics—the conservative or Republican view 🐘—without including voices with different ideas. This gives listeners an incomplete picture of what's happening in Tucson 🌵. It's important to hear diverse viewpoints to understand the whole story about issues in our city 🏙️.
🗝️ Takeaways
🔍 DeSimone's podcast serves as a conservative echo chamber with no progressive voices to challenge right-wing narratives about debt, crime, and local governance
🏥 RFK Jr. has leveraged his Kennedy name to give credibility to the Trump administration while focusing on food dyes rather than addressing systemic health issues
💸 Congressman Schweikert predicts economic doom while offering no solutions other than cutting social programs and never mentioning taxing the wealthy
🚓 The podcast cherry-picks Tucson crime statistics, emphasizing a 31.5% increase in homicides while ignoring decreases in other violent crimes and TPD's 80-90% case closure rate
🏛️ State Senator Vince Leach criticizes the "Oprah budget" for giving "everybody a prize" while simultaneously fighting for his own $5 million share of state funds
🩺 Diet of Hope representatives revealed that many patients come to them on 8-10 medications minimum, highlighting how the pharmaceutical industry dominates American healthcare despite representing only 2.4% of the global population
Tucson's Toxic Politics: The MAGA Machine Marches On While Progressives Push Back
In the echo chamber of conservative commentary that is Christopher DeSimone's "Wake Up" podcast, the May 15th episode delivered a whirlwind of right-wing rhetoric, selective statistics, and MAGA messaging thinly disguised as local conversation. As your progressive voice in the Sonoran Desert, I dove deep into this conservative quicksand so you wouldn't have to wade through the full three hours of anti-Tucson, anti-progressive propaganda.
The Cast of Conservative Characters
The podcast featured host Christopher DeSimone alongside his pastry-peddling sidekick "Malta Joe" (whose recurring "Malta Dome" segment involves discussions about Mediterranean pastries called "pastizzi"). But the real conservative cavalcade began with the guests:
Congressman David Schweikert, with his self-described "geek crew" of economic analysts, who is so “good at math,” he was convicted of 11 counts of House ethics violations for his troubling numbers
State Senator Vince Leach
Chorus Nylander from KVOA News 4 discussing crime statistics
Elizabeth Gahn and Maria Van Allen from Diet of Hope
Let's dissect what each guest discussed and unpack the conservative narratives being pushed onto Tucson listeners.
RFK Jr.: The Kennedy Who Traded Progressive Values for MAGA Approval
Before welcoming his first guest, DeSimone played clips from RFK Jr.'s recent Senate testimony, in which Kennedy boasted about eliminating food dyes "in 100 days" and criticized the quality of food in Head Start programs.
"This guy's still getting pounded by Democrats like somehow because he's a Kennedy and he's in the Trump administration, he supported Trump's election, that he's still at some sort of total bastard," DeSimone complained. "I mean, the guy's using his position for trying to have healthy food and no chemicals and crap in food."
Interesting how DeSimone conveniently ignores Kennedy's dangerous anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and his betrayal of his family's progressive legacy to cozy up to Trump and the far right. Since when has the MAGA crowd cared about children's health and nutrition?
In one clip, Kennedy confronted Congresswoman DeLauro (whom DeSimone mockingly compared to "drag queen Dame Edna") about food dyes, declaring: "Look at our children. They're the sickest children in the world... There's no such thing as Republican children or Democratic children. There's just kids."
While children's health is certainly important, what's disturbing is how Kennedy has leveraged his family name to legitimize the Trump administration's regressive policies on everything from environmental protection to healthcare. The selective concern for children's well-being while supporting an administration that separated migrant families and gutted the ACA speaks volumes.
Congressman Schweikert's Economic Apocalypse Prophecies
When Congressman David Schweikert called in with his economic team, the conversation quickly descended into the familiar Republican debt hysteria playbook – from the same party that passed massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy that sent the deficit soaring.
"We borrow like $6 billion a day," Schweikert claimed, as his team predicted either a dramatic economic "cliff" or a "slow rot" for the American economy. When DeSimone asked how many people in Congress actually care about reducing the deficit, Schweikert deflected with: "So, what is your favorite coffee shop in Tucson?"
Classic deflection technique. When faced with acknowledging the hypocrisy of your party's fiscal policies, change the subject to coffee.
Pressed further, Schweikert admitted: "The fact of the matter is, lots of people give group beautiful speeches, and almost no one wants to take the hit of telling the truth of what the drivers are."
The conversation became even more revealing when Schweikert's team debated whether America faces a "cliff" economic collapse or "slow decline" – pure fear-mongering designed to justify austerity measures that hurt working families while protecting the wealthy.
"We live in a time of miracles, the adoption of AI, the use of technology to cure a certain whole bunch of diseases," Schweikert offered as a potential solution to America's fiscal challenges.
Ah yes, the Republican solution to economic inequality: wait for AI and technology to save us while we cut social programs and protect tax cuts for the rich. How convenient.
Throughout the entire conversation about federal debt and deficits, there wasn't a single mention of raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy or corporations. Instead, Schweikert's implicit "solution" involves cutting social programs that help everyday Americans.
State Senator Vince Leach and Arizona's Budget Battles
State Senator Vince Leach joined to discuss Arizona's budget challenges, claiming the state only has $277 million available for the next budget year, down from an anticipated $900 million.
When asked why the budget outlook deteriorated, Leach blamed what he called the "Oprah budget" from the previous year, in which "everybody gets a prize"—his derisive term for a budget that included funding for various community projects.
"At the end of ‘23, when they were doing the budget, all of that was gone. All $2.5 billion was gone, and we were $1.3 billion in a hole," Leach lamented. "That was what we have come to know as the Oprah budget, where Oprah gives everybody a prize."
Never mind that many of those "prizes" were essential investments in education, infrastructure, and services for vulnerable Arizonans. In the conservative imagination, any government spending that helps regular people is wasteful "prizes” while giving more tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations.
The irony reached its peak when Leach criticized the "Oprah budget" while simultaneously acknowledging that he wants his own "$5 million" share for pet projects in his district. When pressed about taking the money, Leach said: "I said I'd like my five million in the safe, that rainy day hopper," but then explained why he felt entitled to the funds for his own projects.
"Now that I've had blood, sweat, and tears getting two or three bills, one of which is the Pima County and the other is a cochlear implant bill through the mill... I know what that means to the people in Pima County as far as stopping the revolving door on drug addiction and the cochlear implant people... I can't save everyone, but I'm only saving a few."
The cognitive dissonance is staggering – Republicans rail against government spending until it benefits their constituents or donors. Then suddenly it's not wasteful; it's essential.
In a particularly revealing moment, Leach compared the scrutiny faced by University of Arizona President Robert Robbins over a $140 million shortfall to the less intense coverage of Governor Katie Hobbs' approval of $322 million in Department of Developmental Disabilities spending.
"Bobby was let go over 122 [million]. She messed up for 300 million," Leach complained. "The Democrats said nothing, zero nothing."
This false equivalence ignores that Hobbs' spending was for critical services for vulnerable Arizonans with developmental disabilities who were experiencing explosive growth in need. As Leach himself admitted: "We have an increase in the DDD community... we have an increase in that population... and then the cost... when we increased minimum wage, that drove up the wages within a DDD community, which is already a hard job to recruit for." Context matters.
Manufacturing a Crime Crisis in Tucson
The podcast featured a segment on Tucson crime statistics based on a KVOA report by Chorus Nylander. According to the report, homicides in Tucson are up 31.5% year-to-date, with 25 homicide victims compared to 19 at this time last year.
DeSimone used this statistic to launch a blistering attack on Tucson's progressive leadership, particularly Mayor Regina Romero: "She is filming documentaries with Meg Ryan that her solutions of no cops is right. That's how effing psycho this whole situation is right now. It is wild. She is leaving all of you."
He continued with a litany of officials he claims are failing Tucson: "Here's all of the people who are leaving you to hang when it comes to violence: Romero, Santa Cruz, Nicky Lee, mouth-breathing Paul Cunningham. Who else do we have here? Oh, Kevin Dahl, the pool cleaner, Karen Uhlich and now Only Fan sensation Rocque Perez."
The disrespect and childish name-calling directed at Tucson's elected officials is staggering, especially from someone who claims to care about public discourse. And the sexist undertones when discussing female officials are impossible to miss.
What DeSimone conveniently downplayed from the same report was that TPD Lieutenant Aaron Wine noted that other violent crimes, such as assaults and non-fatal shootings, are down, and that TPD has an impressively high case closure rate of 80-90%, well above the national average of just over 50%.
"The national average on case closure, he says, is just over 50%. And our closure rate is about 80 to 90% annually," the report stated – information that DeSimone acknowledged but quickly dismissed to focus on his preferred narrative.
This selective cherry-picking of crime statistics is a classic conservative tactic: highlight any number that fits the "cities are dangerous hellscapes" narrative while ignoring broader context and trends that suggest otherwise. It's designed to stoke fear, particularly among suburban voters, and to undermine confidence in progressive leadership.
Diet of Hope: The One Non-Political Segment
The final guests, Elizabeth Gahn and Maria Van Allen from Diet of Hope, provided the only respite from the right-wing messaging. They discussed their nutrition program and protein powder product line called Long Life Protein.
Their approach focuses on helping patients reduce prescription medications through dietary changes, noting that many of their clients are taking a staggering number of pharmaceuticals when they first arrive.
"We're seeing patients that are on two pages of medications," Maria Van Allen explained. "I would say 8 to 10 minimum."
Elizabeth Gahn added: "We have patients that honestly we don't even know how they would be hungry after taking 20 pills."
Their work in helping people improve their health through nutrition is admirable, and their critique of the pharmaceutical industry's influence on healthcare aligns with progressive concerns about corporate control of our medical system. In a rare moment of agreement with progressive values, DeSimone and his guests discussed how pharmaceutical companies dominate healthcare decisions.
"America makes up 2.4% of the world's population, but we spend 74% on pharmaceuticals," DeSimone noted, quoting recent statistics.
Maria responded: "Everybody thinks there's a magic pill to fix things, but really you have to do the work with your nutrition. You've heard the saying, use food as medicine, and that's what we really believe that food is really the key."
This is the one area where the conversation touched on a legitimate critique that progressives have been making for decades: our healthcare system prioritizes pharmaceutical profits over preventative care and holistic approaches. Of course, the conversation never extended to the logical conclusion of needing universal healthcare that emphasizes prevention.
The Conservative Echo Chamber Effect
What's most striking about DeSimone's podcast is how it exemplifies the conservative media ecosystem. From federal debt fear-mongering to crime panic to attacks on Democratic officials, the show hits all the MAGA talking points while presenting itself as a local community discussion.
The absence of diverse perspectives is glaring. Not a single progressive voice was featured to challenge the dominant conservative narratives. Instead, listeners were treated to a parade of Republican officials given free rein to present their worldview unchallenged, interspersed with DeSimone's anti-Tucson commentary.
His disdain for the city he purports to serve is palpable. At one point, while discussing the Tucson Police Department's location, DeSimone mockingly asked: "Jacob Couch was killed, what? Let's see. Think about this. Jacob Couch was how many blocks away from the TPD headquarters? I mean, it was right under your nose. Right?"
This constant belittling of Tucson, its leadership, and its institutions has real consequences. It erodes public trust, discourages civic engagement, and deepens political divides in our community.
This is how right-wing ideology spreads at the local level – through seemingly innocuous community media that actually serves as a pipeline for conservative talking points, conspiracy theories, and divisive rhetoric.
The Antidote to Conservative Propaganda
Despite the right-wing echo chambers that dominate much of our local media landscape, there's reason for optimism. Tucson remains a progressive beacon in Arizona, with a diverse community committed to social justice, environmental protection, and creating a more equitable society.
The very existence of shows like DeSimone's podcast reveals the right's desperation to maintain control of the narrative. They fear the changing demographics and evolving values of our community. Their increasingly strident rhetoric betrays their anxiety about the progressive future that Tucson represents.
By staying informed, speaking out, and supporting truly independent local media like Three Sonorans, we can counter these conservative narratives and continue building the inclusive, forward-thinking Tucson we all deserve.
Support Independent Progressive Journalism
To keep this kind of analysis and independent journalism coming to your inbox, consider supporting Three Sonorans Substack. Your subscription helps sustain critical progressive voices in our community and ensures that conservative propaganda doesn't go unchallenged.
Together, we can build a media ecosystem that truly represents the diversity, compassion, and progressive values that make Tucson special.
Share Your Thoughts
What conservative talking points have you encountered in local media? How has the MAGA messaging machine impacted our local discourse? Have you noticed how crime statistics are manipulated to push political agendas?
Share your experiences in the comments below, and let's work together to create a more honest, nuanced public discourse that serves all Tucsonans, not just the conservative few.
Quotes:
"She is filming documentaries with Meg Ryan that her solutions of no cops is right. That's how effing psycho this whole situation is right now." - Christopher DeSimone attacking Tucson Mayor Regina Romero while discussing crime statistics
"Here's all of the people that are leaving you to hang when it comes to violence. Romero, Santa Cruz, Nicky Lee, mouth breather Paul Cunningham. Who else do we got here? Oh, Kevin Dahl, the pool cleaner. Karen Uhlich and now Only Fan sensation Rocque Perez." - DeSimone using insulting language to describe Tucson city officials
"We borrow like $6 billion a day." - Congressman David Schweikert making claims about federal government borrowing to create economic anxiety
"The fact of the matter is, you got lots of people give group beautiful speeches and almost no one wants to take the hit of telling the truth of what the drivers are." - Schweikert, admitting that few in Congress actually want to address budget issues
"That was what we have come to know as the Oprah budget, where Oprah gives everybody a prize." - State Senator Vince Leach using dismissive language to describe a budget that funded community projects
"Bobby was let go over 122 [million]. She messed up for 300 million." - Leach comparing the UofA president's firing to what he perceived as less scrutiny for Governor Hobbs
"We're seeing patients that are on two pages of medications... I would say 8 to 10 minimum." - Maria Van Allen from Diet of Hope discussing the over-medication of patients
"America makes up 2.4% of the world's population, but we spend 74% on pharmaceuticals." - Statistic cited during the Diet of Hope segment
People Mentioned and Quotes
Christopher DeSimone: Host of the "Wake Up" podcast, running for mayor in Oro Valley. "Jacob Couch was killed, what? Let's see. Think about this. Jacob Couch was how many blocks away from the TPD headquarters? I mean, it was right under your nose. Right?"
Malta Joe: Co-host who sells Mediterranean pastries called "pastizzi" at farmers markets.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Trump administration official, Head of Health and Human Services. "Look at our children. They're the sickest children in the world... There's no such thing as Republican children or Democratic children. There's just kids."
Congressman David Schweikert: Republican Congressman with his "geek crew" economic team. "We live in a time of miracles, the adoption of AI, the use of technology to cure certain whole bunch of diseases."
State Senator Vince Leach: Arizona Republican state senator. "I said I'd like my five million in the save that rainy day hopper."
Chorus Nylander: KVOA News 4 reporter who covered Tucson crime statistics.
Lieutenant Aaron Wine: TPD Violent Crimes Division officer quoted in Nylander's report. "Our closure rate is about 80 to 90% annually."
Elizabeth Gahn: Co-founder of Diet of Hope. "We have patients that honestly we don't even know how they would be hungry after taking 20 pills."
Maria Van Allen: From Diet of Hope. "Everybody thinks there's a magic pill to fix things, but really you have to do the work with your nutrition."
Mayor Regina Romero: Tucson Mayor, repeatedly criticized by DeSimone. DeSimone claimed she is "filming documentaries with Meg Ryan."
Robert Robbins: Former University of Arizona President who was removed over financial issues.
Governor Katie Hobbs: Arizona Governor criticized by Leach for approving DDD spending.
Jacob Couch: Homicide victim mentioned in the crime statistics segment.
Have a scoop or a story you want us to follow up on? Send us a message!
