ICYMI: Honest Arizona Sheds Light on Affordability at Working Moms Roundtable

Ciscomani Voted In Support of Cost-Raising Tariffs, Cuts to SNAP and Health Care

TUCSON — Honest Arizona shed light on the affordability crisis that Arizonans working moms are facing –  from higher gas prices as a result of the Iran war to lingering high costs from tariffs that Congressman Juan Ciscomani voted to support.

According to Arizona Public Media: 

American families are grappling with the rising costs of basic essentials.

Things like food, gas, rent and utilities are on the rise while wages remain stagnant and not consistent with inflation.

Parents like Margaret Soland, a single mother of three, are then left to make difficult decisions between food and personal health care.

“Sometimes I can’t afford my meds, because either my kids need meds or my kids need something so I have to choose and it’s hard,” she said at a panel discussion about affordability with Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva on Thursday, National Working Moms Day.

Andrea Moreno, executive director of Honest Arizona says equality is one of the challenges that working mothers face today.

“Working moms don’t feel almost equal to a male, we get asked different questions like about childcare, ‘Who’s watching your kids?’,” she said. “I think inherently being a mother can make you [feel] like an activist.”

Grijalva listened to a panel of five mothers from diverse backgrounds who raised concerns about affordability, equitable access to education and workplace policies for working parents.

“When you look at the increased cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, the requirement to make less than $29,000 penalizes people who are actually seeking employment anywhere,” Grijalva said, before calling out recent government spending that’s been allocated to the war in Iran.

“We spent 11.3 billion in six days…10% of that could have funded all of these cuts to Medicare and Medicaid,” she said.

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