Speaker 1: Do you want to be an American?
Speaker 2: She got blown back on seven hundred wws. So we
Speaker 2: have a coalition about half of the United States. The
Speaker 2: United States and District of Columbia are suing the Trump
Speaker 2: administration over the suspension of food staff benefits. With the
Speaker 2: government shutdown happening right now, so here in Ohio, we
Speaker 2: can't control DC. But now we're going, all right, what
Speaker 2: about Snap? What about TAMP what about Wick? What about
Speaker 2: that money if we don't get federal funds? With looking
Speaker 2: that way as we get closer to Saturday, locally, Governor
Speaker 2: Dewin said he's studying options involving state money. I had
Speaker 2: a council member all be on earlier this morning and
Speaker 2: she said the city's looking at this too. And the
Speaker 2: county held they hearing yesterday where Alicia Reese was a
Speaker 2: holding court as she usually does. Commissioner Reese welcome, how
Speaker 2: are you?
Speaker 3: Oh, I've had better days, I'll tell you that, But
Speaker 3: I bet this is toughbelievable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got so to bring people up to speed
Speaker 2: on this. To bring up to speed, one point four
Speaker 2: million Ohioans reliance SNAP benefits and about forty three thousand kids,
Speaker 2: so roughly one in eight folks who live in Hamlin
Speaker 2: County are getting some form of SNAP benefits. Every month
Speaker 2: in Hamlin County, SNAP pays out nineteen million dollars, I said,
Speaker 2: nineteen million a month. With your budget and even the
Speaker 2: city's budget. I don't know how you overcome that, Alicia.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it, you look at it. We can
Speaker 3: overcome it. I mean, we're talking to almost two hundred
Speaker 3: and forty million a year, and we're looking at ninety
Speaker 3: seven thousand of those people, like you said, right here
Speaker 3: in Hamilton County, and you know they yesterday, the Director
Speaker 3: of Jobs and Family Services. One of the things he
Speaker 3: talked about, these are people who are working. Majority of
Speaker 3: these people who actually work every day, some of them
Speaker 3: working two and three jobs. You're looking at children who
Speaker 3: innocent children. Then you're looking at senior citizens who pay
Speaker 3: their dues.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 3: You know, that's a bit chunk of people.
Speaker 2: Serve.
Speaker 3: Yeah, veteran to serve this country. I mean, this is
Speaker 3: uh uh, this is unbelievable. And to deny them something
Speaker 3: as basic as being able to have food on the
Speaker 3: table is unbelievable. And then one of the things the
Speaker 3: food free store, food bank, which you know, uh, the
Speaker 3: in world hunger. That's one of my it's just been dear, dear,
Speaker 3: my heart, and I've always worked with them for you know,
Speaker 3: most of my life helping. One of the things that
Speaker 3: was said that we can't food pantry ourselves out into it.
Speaker 3: You know, even with the money that we have, uh
Speaker 3: that we had from SNAP. We had SNAP and food
Speaker 3: Bank was kind of a gap filler. It was never
Speaker 3: the main line, and so it won't be we won't
Speaker 3: be able to. We're going to put more money toward that.
Speaker 3: We as a as a county commission, we've put about
Speaker 3: two million dollars with the URPA money that we did.
Speaker 3: We're looking for more opera money. We know we probably
Speaker 3: got at least another two hundred thousand. We're scraping to
Speaker 3: sign some others so that number may go up, but
Speaker 3: we know that that is just a temporary situation. Then
Speaker 3: what people don't understand the economic impact of the SNAP benefits.
Speaker 3: In other words, for every dollar that we put in
Speaker 3: you talked about the nineteen million, we get one dollar
Speaker 3: and fifty four cents back, So we're talking about almost
Speaker 3: you know, over two hundred close three hundred million dollars
Speaker 3: economically in the economy to keep this economy going.
Speaker 2: Because you're going to buy stuff, You're going to go
Speaker 2: to the store, you're going to go to Kroger whatever,
Speaker 2: and that money gets pumped back into the economy, and
Speaker 2: that means jobs and a few people are done. You know, Okay,
Speaker 2: you don't need that many people at Kroger working wherever
Speaker 2: you get your groceries, and you can't, you can't. I
Speaker 2: talked to a Kurt Ryber on Monday Show, Alicia Rees,
Speaker 2: CEO of the Freestar Food Bank, and he was he
Speaker 2: was kind about you, said, well, I'm optimistic we'll get
Speaker 2: this thing settled now here it is. You know, we're
Speaker 2: heading in the back half the week and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden that's not looking at a certainty or a
Speaker 2: guarantee for sure. But he said, look, we might have
Speaker 2: to open twice a month to folks who are on
Speaker 2: snap are supposed to once a month, and he's gonna
Speaker 2: have to lean on his vendors as suppliers. And of
Speaker 2: course the generosity of Cincinnatians and they serve not just Cincinnati,
Speaker 2: but as you know, like twenty counties. So if you're
Speaker 2: hearing this and like I have make a donation the
Speaker 2: free store food Bank because it's that time of the
Speaker 2: year and now we're getting to you know, Thanksgiving and
Speaker 2: Christmas when the need is even great. It's like the
Speaker 2: worst time possible for this to happen.
Speaker 3: It's the worst time possible. And as you indicate it,
Speaker 3: we looked at also the Director of Jobs and Family Services,
Speaker 3: because all of the snap benefits don't happen just at
Speaker 3: the beginning of the month. Right, We've got half at
Speaker 3: the beginning of the month, so we've got a group
Speaker 3: that will be impacted November first. Then we've got another
Speaker 3: half where theirs are in the middle of the month,
Speaker 3: so theirs would go out right at Thanksgiving. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's unbelie believable. And then you talked about Krogers and others.
Speaker 3: They're small, there's farmers' markets, there's smaller retails. Over almost
Speaker 3: ten thousand retails stores throughout Ohio will be affected. So
Speaker 3: now we're talking about some you know, some of the
Speaker 3: smaller stores as well as it affects you know, Krogers
Speaker 3: and all those because the less people buy, right, the
Speaker 3: higher the prices and so and then some of the
Speaker 3: smaller retail stores, the farmer markets and those kinds of things.
Speaker 3: Some of them have indicated they might go out of business.
Speaker 3: And those are the ones that provide the fresh fruit
Speaker 3: into some of these food desert areas. So it's a
Speaker 3: trickle effect. Then you have senior citizens who many are
Speaker 3: on medicine, and some children that have to take medicines,
Speaker 3: and now you have to decide can afford the medicine
Speaker 3: or the food. And everybody knows when you take medicines
Speaker 3: that it says you got to eat with the medicine.
Speaker 3: So it's a trickle down effect. And then we had C.
Speaker 3: Mha a director come in and he said it also
Speaker 3: affects because now we're talking about housing and his program
Speaker 3: has because of the government shut down. Uh. He indicated
Speaker 3: that it will affect people with affordable housing as well.
Speaker 3: And you know, we've been pushing affordable housing. Will people
Speaker 3: be able to have a place to live? And you know,
Speaker 3: it's slow, it's just everything, and you know, I've been
Speaker 3: on this property taxes just chilling us, you know, and
Speaker 3: we did that, We did that Bengals deals sloan and
Speaker 3: they took out thirty percent, so we can't even try
Speaker 3: to get the thirty percent rebate. Then the state would
Speaker 3: not do anything on the property taxes. Yet they're still
Speaker 3: fiddling their trying.
Speaker 1: To figure out what's going on.
Speaker 2: That's that's a whole separate, complex issue, right, and then
Speaker 2: the man time it's coming up, bottom line is Saturday.
Speaker 2: Unless things change in Washington, a lot of people are
Speaker 2: going to have to do without. And I, you know,
Speaker 2: I look at this thing, Alisha Reese's you know, and
Speaker 2: we've been for example, the federal workers for example, who
Speaker 2: are working out of the paycheck. And I said, when
Speaker 2: this thing started, I was like, Okay, it's theater, is
Speaker 2: what it is. And then what happens in about thirty
Speaker 2: days that theater becomes reality. So you see the snap
Speaker 2: benefits cut concerns with the FAA. You have frederial workers
Speaker 2: now missing a couple paychecks. You know, the most families
Speaker 2: can afford. You know, Okay, can we tighten it up
Speaker 2: for till the next pay cycle? Sure we do that
Speaker 2: all the time. You start talking a couple of pay cycles,
Speaker 2: it's a different story entirely. And yet these people still
Speaker 2: have to show up to work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they got to show up to work not getting paid.
Speaker 3: So now we're in twenty twenty twenty five right, twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five people working and not getting paid. Come on,
Speaker 3: in this society, there'd be a furlough. These people have
Speaker 3: home mortgages, they will have the property taxes. We do
Speaker 3: their gas and electrics do. Now you're talking over here
Speaker 3: those with the snap benefits. Now they can't get anything
Speaker 3: to eat. Children and families worried, how this is outrageous,
Speaker 3: and then it's song, we have until this Thursday, and
Speaker 3: I don't think it's going to go. The state then said, hey,
Speaker 3: you fixed the problem on property taxes, and you saw
Speaker 3: Butler County. In Warren County, they looking to double the
Speaker 3: homestead to help the seniors. But it doesn't look like
Speaker 3: you know, I asked the administrator to look at all options,
Speaker 3: and it doesn't seem like I'm going to get the
Speaker 3: support to be able to do that here in Hamilton County.
Speaker 3: So now what do we do. We can't give the
Speaker 3: homeowners to break federal workers furloughs. That's your middle class
Speaker 3: that they're working with no paycheck. Senior citizens have done
Speaker 3: their time and they can't now get anything to eat.
Speaker 3: They don't know if to pay for the medicine or
Speaker 3: can they pay to get something to eat children out
Speaker 3: here hungry, These ninety seven thousand people affected about the
Speaker 3: snap benefits, like you said, nutrition and all that, they
Speaker 3: can't even get any thing to eat. And most of
Speaker 3: them are working every day. I mean, what what are
Speaker 3: we doing here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean pretty soon, I mean it's gonna be
Speaker 2: You're gonna look at it and go, Okay, well I
Speaker 2: can feed my kids, or I can pay the electric bill.
Speaker 2: And you know, you can have a really good job
Speaker 2: and good income stream and still feel the pinch of
Speaker 2: the spadic.
Speaker 1: Hell, Alicia, you got a couple of you.
Speaker 2: You you make good money, and you still have a
Speaker 2: hard time paying your electric bill.
Speaker 3: Hey, let me just say let me say this. Let
Speaker 3: me say this.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 3: I am a normal and I and I have the
Speaker 3: struggles of everybody.
Speaker 1: Manager.
Speaker 2: Because this morning Alicia was a little late because her
Speaker 2: phone died because her power went out.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, I mean you gotta pay that,
Speaker 1: you gotta pay, you gotta pay.
Speaker 4: Duke Kennedy girl, I jumped up, saw, I said, wait,
Speaker 4: mane you know my list, I got my receipt.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go waving in somebody's face. Somebody, Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what it is.
Speaker 2: I love the conspiracy, I really really do to do.
Speaker 1: She's Alicia Ras County Commissioner on the show.
Speaker 3: It's no. Let me just tell people. I've got the
Speaker 3: five or three release bus and we have helped thirty
Speaker 3: thousand people where we got the bus going all over
Speaker 3: the county. We're going to try to connect people to
Speaker 3: as much help as we have available to them right now.
Speaker 3: We're bringing food, We're bringing all kind of help from
Speaker 3: jobs and family services, anything we have. We're going to
Speaker 3: try to connect them and answer the problems that they
Speaker 3: may have. And we also try to get people. Let's
Speaker 3: get these unclaimed funds, every little dollar count. We're in
Speaker 3: a nine to one one right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are, and you hope that cooler heads prevail.
Speaker 2: Like if I were to talk to Democrats and Republicans,
Speaker 2: I think the sentiment of the country is, Okay, you
Speaker 2: made your point.
Speaker 1: You made your point.
Speaker 2: Now now once you get past And the reason why
Speaker 2: the longest shutdown was thirty five days is because after
Speaker 2: you know, first few weeks at theater, once you start
Speaker 2: to get past that thirty day, market really starts to
Speaker 2: hurt people who don't deserve it, and you so at
Speaker 2: the end of the day is you could play party
Speaker 2: politics and our sides got to win and crush the
Speaker 2: other side. But you know when when individual families and
Speaker 2: kids and veterans and seniors are getting squeezed out and
Speaker 2: literally not getting food, I think that's time both sides
Speaker 2: have to go. Look, we made our point. We've eventually
Speaker 2: got a govern here. We got to legislate, and let's
Speaker 2: fix this problem through the legislative action, not executive order.
Speaker 2: And a lot of people blame Trump for all this thing,
Speaker 2: but it's party politics. It's the lines are so defined
Speaker 2: and it's such a gap between the two parties right now.
Speaker 2: This is why Congress largely we're sending them to Washington.
Speaker 2: What are they doing. All they're doing is shutting. They
Speaker 2: came and bounce a budgetalasea, you got one job, you
Speaker 2: can't do that, and then you shut the government down
Speaker 2: like every ten minutes on the tens.
Speaker 3: Well, we got to come together. But this is an
Speaker 3: economics fight we've got to fight going right now. Sloan
Speaker 3: from creating the have and the have nots, and the
Speaker 3: have nots is growing and getting crushed at whatever they do.
Speaker 3: I encourage all of them to come together, but we
Speaker 3: also got to make sure that we could afford to
Speaker 3: go to the hospital. I mean, I mean it's an
Speaker 3: economics fight, like you said, whether it's a snap benefit,
Speaker 3: whether it's a property taxes, whether it's you know, whether
Speaker 3: it's cannot afford to go to the hospital right now,
Speaker 3: because you know we can't. Basically, Americans, we just can't
Speaker 3: afford to pay more. We can't pay more to go
Speaker 3: to the hospital. We can't pay more to go to
Speaker 3: the doctors. We can't go out here and cut our
Speaker 3: snap benefits. We can't pay more for property taxes. We
Speaker 3: just squeezed, you know, the economy has squeezed us. And
Speaker 3: like you said, here we are down at the bottom,
Speaker 3: trying to trying to survive. And I think I would
Speaker 3: want all of them. I don't care who you are.
Speaker 3: Take the posits out of it. Fight for Americans to
Speaker 3: be able to look.
Speaker 2: Forward, to live, go back and negotiate and come up
Speaker 2: with something. And you know, Democrats, it's about subsidy. I
Speaker 2: think subsidy is terrible because it's just making affordable or
Speaker 2: I guess pretending to make affordable something that's not. You're
Speaker 2: taking cash from one palm, move it to another.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day.
Speaker 2: This is why we've got a thirty eight trillion dollar
Speaker 2: deficit with the subsidies republics. And I've talked to many
Speaker 2: of my friends in the right side of the l
Speaker 2: talk about, you know, empowering people to take care of
Speaker 2: better care of their health and incentivizing well and it's
Speaker 2: that's all well and good, but that takes ten, twenty, thirty,
Speaker 2: forty years or more for that to take it. We
Speaker 2: need a plan right now. We need to fix the
Speaker 2: broken healthcare system right now. We don't need more subsidy,
Speaker 2: and we don't need, you know, to empower people in
Speaker 2: future generations to get healthy. We still need to have
Speaker 2: people today that have cancer, that have diabetes, that are
Speaker 2: in wheelchairs, that have mental illness, all those things. And
Speaker 2: we're not addressing that. We're just kicking the can down
Speaker 2: the road, and both sides are complicity.
Speaker 1: That's all it is. And it's squeezing out the county,
Speaker 1: the city, the state. We're screwed.
Speaker 2: We don't have the rainy Day Fund, and now that
Speaker 2: was in the proposals is to get to wind to
Speaker 2: tap the rainy Day Fund. There's four billion dollars in
Speaker 2: that I don't know how long that would fund SNAP.
Speaker 1: It might get us through another month.
Speaker 2: But the problem with that though is, you know, Alicia,
Speaker 2: is the General Assembly needs to pass the legislation and
Speaker 2: that's not going to happen by Saturday. You can't directly
Speaker 2: fund SNAP because the state it only verifies eligibility. That's
Speaker 2: a federal government runs that system.
Speaker 3: Well, I think we all got to have there's unpresident.
Speaker 3: This is unprecedented what we're doing.
Speaker 1: It's self inflicted. That's the worst part.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're self inflicting and Americas are getting hurt and
Speaker 3: you're reading articles that you get in ballrooms even though
Speaker 3: it's private money. Can you imagine three hundred million of
Speaker 3: private money immediately? We need two hundred and forty million
Speaker 3: to do SNAP. The money is out there, but they're
Speaker 3: just squeezing everybody to having no money, and then only
Speaker 3: certain people have money. And we, like you said, we
Speaker 3: pay our taxes and we got to get a return
Speaker 3: on it. We got to resent us stuff to Washington,
Speaker 3: and damn it, Washington, we got to get it back here.
Speaker 1: Problem.
Speaker 2: It's a problem working people. I mean, you know, let's
Speaker 2: take care of the workers focus. Most of the people
Speaker 2: on SNAP are working families are working at least a
Speaker 2: couple jobs, and County Commissioner a Lisha Reese, I'll let
Speaker 2: you go before I don't know. Do you need me
Speaker 2: the venue money so you can pay your electric bill?
Speaker 2: Can I help you?
Speaker 1: What can I do for you?
Speaker 3: It's been paid? Okay, all right, it's been paid.
Speaker 1: And you're wireless. Clearly words, Thank god, I.
Speaker 3: Don't want to be There's some people out there. Let
Speaker 3: me just say, who can't pay? And I guess I
Speaker 3: got a glimpse of would have liked to be in
Speaker 3: the dark. And that's.
Speaker 4: Day.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you so much, Alicia, Thanks for jumping on this morning.
Speaker 2: Thanks take care, have a good one. It's always bringing
Speaker 2: the eat here. Sure you're not any money that electric bill?
Speaker 2: Get to some cash or cricket wireless, keep that phone going.
Speaker 2: She's good radio. She is Alicia Reese Hamblin County commission
Speaker 2: in a very serious issue though on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Uh if these benefits, it's part.
Speaker 2: I want to believe that even Washington has some sense
Speaker 2: and goes, you know, we really we really need to
Speaker 2: come to some common ground here because people are going
Speaker 2: to suffer starting on Saturday. Now, is it gonna be
Speaker 2: Saturday exactly that all of a sudden, we're gonna have all,
Speaker 2: now what four million people starving, and I no, it's
Speaker 2: good a few days, but uh, the point has been made.
Speaker 2: It's time to actually govern for a change. How about
Speaker 2: that we sent you to Washington to governor how about governing?
Speaker 1: Why did you do that? Sloaney seven hundred, wil