Republicans Caught Funneling $94,000,000 In Welfare Funds

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Mississippi state authorities have been caught misusing an absolutely staggering amount of funds that had been sent from the federal government and designated for assistance for poor families in the state. More than 90 percent of what the state has received from the federal government over the last three years as part of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program has been either spent on unapproved ventures or remains completely unaccounted for. That includes a staggering $94 million total in misused funds over a period of just a few years.

Mississippi Department of Human Services’ former chief John Davis has already been arrested amidst the fallout over the stunning financial crimes. Mississippi state auditor Shad White commented:

‘This completed audit of DHS for the previous year shows the most egregious misspending my staff have seen in their careers at the Office of the State Auditor. When you read this one-hundred-plus page audit, you will see that, if there was a way to misspend money, it seems DHS leadership or their grantees thought of it and tried it.’

The illegally misused money even includes $1.1 million that went out to pay for a speaking engagement from former NFL star Brett Favre which the former football player never even showed up for. A woman named Nancy New, who is also facing criminal charges and founded a chain of private schools that operate in the state, received some $6 million of the misused TANF funds, which she and her family used for purposes ranging from paying off a speeding ticket to the purchase of three new trucks.

White insisted that property purchased with the illegally used taxpayer money should be seized. Referring to the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS), he commented:

‘DHS staff should immediately move to seize any property that was purchased by grantees with taxpayer money, as that property belongs to the taxpayers. That property does not belong to the Auditor’s office, so we cannot do this for them, but it should be marked as DHS property, and DHS should use their legal authority and move quickly to seize it.’

Ironically, Republicans often complain about money designated to support low income individuals in the U.S. Even amidst the Coronavirus pandemic that has devastated segments of the U.S. society and economy, a contingent of Republican Senators complained about the addition of a measly hundreds of dollars a week to unemployment benefits. Yet, it turns out that privileged Republicans may pose the actual threat to government finances. Mississippi has had a Republican governor since the early 2000s, and the staggering embezzlement scandal that has newly emerged in the state unfolded under the so-called leadership of some of those state Republicans.

Going forward, hefty federal assistance for the millions of Americans that have been threatened by the economic upheaval of the Coronavirus has been rolled out. Direct payments of up to $1,200 or more have been sent to large swaths of individual Americans, and struggling small businesses have benefited from large forgivable loan funds meant to help keep people on the payroll.