Violet (name changed for privacy) and her 5-year-old son live day-to-day figuring out which bill to pay first, then second, then third or even at all. At age 23 and after losing two jobs, through no fault of her own, she receives $186 a month from a state program designed to help poor families, but shockingly has helped the rich get richer.
Eight years ago, when Violet was 15, her family instructed her to stop attending a public school in Greenville, Miss., to take care of her father. Bed-ridden after having a stroke, Violet’s father divorced her mother years ago and never spent much time with his daughter. Suddenly, all that changed.
Instead of hanging out with her school friends, she was with him full time, only separated when she needed to take a nap on a small bed in his room. Violet was his round-the-clock caretaker: feeding him, washing him, changing his pajamas, talking to him when he was awake, and cleaning his bottom and the bucket toilet every day. No one in the family could afford a health care aide. Her father didn’t have private insurance.
Two years later, he passed. Violet is thankful today for being there to prolong his life and often cries when she talks about him. She regrets not finishing school, realizing that taking the GED was not as easy as she had hoped.
A year after his death, Violet found herself pregnant, choosing not to have an abortion at 18. Today her son is a happy kid, though like Violet, he rarely sees his father, and she struggles to find the money to take care of him.
Gov. Tate Reeves’ So-called ‘Painful Experience’
For about three years, Violet received $186 a month from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the same program that state-appointed officials, nonprofit leaders and friends stole money from, including $5 million in TANF funds redirected to build a volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi.
“As what many would call the leading advocate (along with Speaker Gunn) fighting against Obamacare expansion, I have plenty of scars to show for