Mississippi Governor Overseeing Massive Welfare Fraud Wants Control of Medicaid

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves encouraged President-Elect Trump to reduce Medicaid to a block grant system similar to Mississippi’s corruption-fouled TANF program.

Donald Trump isn’t even fully back in the White House and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves already has big plans for him. Reeves announced this week his desire to reduce Medicaid to a block grant program similar to the TANF program Reeves’ political allies drained of $77 million.

A reporter took advantage of the governor’s public announcement of new investment in the state to get his reaction to the president-elect’s proposal for significant cuts in federal spending.

“… [W]e spend about 8 and a half billion dollars a year on Medicaid in our state and, so, to the extent that the federal government wants to reduce federal funding—and I think they should—they need to give states more flexibility on what segments of the population are covered and which ones are not,” Reeves responded. “They can do that through a block grant, as an example, which is something that Republican governors have advocated for a long time.”

"Mississippi has not shown itself to help working families or individuals without proper safeguards in place.”

Reeves made no mention of how former Department of Human Services Director John Davis used clandestine contracts arising from the block grant process to waste millions of dollars of public money primarily on politically-connected Republican allies and campaign supporters. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program provides cash assistance and services to families with children younger than 18. The creation of TANF in 1996 ended an earlier program of welfare cash assistance by giving state leaders near complete control over how the federal money is distributed. Under the loose pretense of “helping families” Mississippi officials steer cash to nonprofits that purport to help families while often delivering few services and pocketing most of the cash.

Officials like former Gov. Phil Bryant oversaw public-funded contractor investments in a pharmaceutical company allegedly in exchange for lucrative stock options and the construction of a Hattiesburg sports stadium in defiance of restrictions on brick and mortar construction. Nonprofit owner Nancy New, one of the most notorious offenders caught up in the $77 million TANF scandal, provided a film setting for Reeves’ campaign commercials even as GOP mouthpiece SuperTalk Radio boosted New's fraudulent nonprofit, Families First, while accepting more than $630,000 in money meant for food and care. Republican auditors have largely excluded Bryant from any probes, while Republican Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch has ignored the scandal altogether.

Reeves has personally done little to push for the prosecution of wrongdoers associated with one of the nation’s most infamous TANF scandals, and state employees who tweaked contracts to deliver TANF largesse to disreputable nonprofits are still on the state payroll, complete with raises. The state even uses TANF money to settle civil suits against DHS employees over their alleged racist behavior.

And now, after all this, Reeves and the GOP are eager to apply the TANF block grant model to the rest Medicaid.

“If you're going to cut spending, which I think you should, then give us the flexibility to structure a program that is a welfare program that we can ‘right-size’ by supplying the amount of money that the legislature and the Executive Branch determine that needs to be spent,” Reeves said.

Mississippi Democrats reacted with horror to the proposal, fearing a Trump presidency could signal the slide of many important government programs into corruption.

“I think that’s a terrible idea,” said Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson. “Turning Medicaid into a block grant would foolishly give states like Mississippi the flexibility to spend funds as they wish. The TANF block grant helped Mississippi build a new gym at USM, paid for a private fitness trainer, and misuse dollars designed for poor families every which way but the right way. Mississippi has not shown itself to help working families or individuals without proper safeguards in place.”

Summer added block grants, by nature, are a fixed amount, which puts vulnerable populations at risk of losing health benefits when costs rise and funds run low.

Rep. Willie Bailey, D-Greenville, also described the state as “a dismal failure on handling block grants after the TANF mess,” and said he doesn’t “trust our leadership to spend it.”

He claimed state leaders have shown their disregard for residents by routinely refusing to accept federal help through the “Obamacare” Medicaid expansion option, turning away “about $20 billion in education and healthcare, mostly because Barack Obama was a Black president.”

“After all this time, they still don’t want to be seen accepting money from a Black man,” said Bailey. “That’s how you know they’re not serious about this.”

Republicans have been fighting to diminish Medicaid to a TANF-style block grant for decades. In 2003, President George Bush and GOP allies pressed states to accept Medicaid as a block grant, but Congress refused to take up the idea, likely driven by the wrath of U.S. seniors. President Ronald Reagan proposed a similar idea as far back as 1981, but his push was equally unpopular with voters and died under an unwilling Congress. In 1995, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich came close to killing Medicaid as we know it with his “Medigrant” block grant proposal. After a Republican sweep of Congress that year, the GOP-dominated House and the Senate passed Gingrich’s Medigrant legislation, despite public outcry. However, President Bill Clinton vetoed the bill after allowing Gingrich and congress to downgrade federal welfare to the despoiled TANF program we all recognize today.

But now Trump is on his way to the White House and he has a GOP-controlled House and Senate who is eager to fawn over his priorities. Reeves and Mississippi leaders—who have passed no meaningful laws to discourage the next Nancy New and Brett Farve—cannot wait to take the reins.