Mississippi's Governor Tate Reeves has decided to end
the rental assistance implemented during the pandemic.
And mind you, we're talking about Mississippi,
which is one of the poorest states in the country.
Now, why is he doing it?
Well, because he thinks that anything that might assist people
in being able to pay for a roof over their heads, makes them lazy.
They're so entitled, they're so entitled.
Now, the minimum wage in Mississippi is still $7.25.
Again, one of the poorest states in this nation.
But it doesn't matter because Tate Reeves just wants
to further make these people's lives a living hell.
The Rental Assistance for Mississippians Program or
RAMP offered up to 15 months of rental and utility bill assistance for those in need.
It was funded by two COVID-19 economic bills passed by Congress in both 2020 and
2021.
Which provided billions of dollars of rental relief to states to
administer to people economically disadvantaged by the pandemic.
Remember tens of millions of Americans were laid off.
They lost their jobs in the beginning of the pandemic.
Many people never recovered.
Certainly not in states like Mississippi where poverty was already a huge
problem prior to the pandemic.
And so, what was Reeves reasoning for doing this?
Let's go to his post on social media, where he says,
first he quotes Ronald Reagan, government programs once launched, never disappear.
And then he writes today in Mississippi, we are ending RAMP,
a federal program that incentivizes people not to work by using taxpayer
dollars to pay for up to 15 months of free rent and utilities.
RAMP was originally intended to help those struggling as a direct result of COVID.
Yet, so many other government programs on Democrats wish lists,
it fundamentally lost its way and no longer serves its original purpose.
Mississippians pay enough for their own rent,
they shouldn't have to pay for others too.
Well, let's just note that Mississippi had about $130 million
in federal cash left over for RAMP to help people with rental assistance.
That money is now gonna be sent back to the federal government's gonna be sent
back to the treasury.
It kinda reminds me of the red states who refused to take the federal money under
the Affordable Care Act to expand their Medicaid programs to ensure more of
their constituents.
That's, where the right wing is, when they claim to be in favor of economic populism,
understand that they're full of crap.
They love the pain and suffering because they wanna save taxes,
they don't wanna pay their taxes.
And cutting programs that help needy individuals and
ever increasing population of Americans, to be honest with you, is how they do it.
But let me give you more, actually, before I do Cenk, why don't you jump in?
>> Yeah, one quick thing on this.
Look, normally the reason Republicans take things away from the poor
in the middle classes cuz they wanna give it to the rich.
And we've shown you countless ways that they redistribute the wealth to the top.
So they'll investigate tax fraud for people making under $28,000, but
not investigated for billionaires, right?
And we'll show you dozens of examples, but
in this case it's not really gonna go back to tax cuts for the rich,
it's not even staying in Mississippi, it's going to the federal government.
So why do it?
It seems so gratuitous, you're just turning away free money from your state.
Your state that's a miserable shape, cuz it's run by Republicans,
it's almost dead last in almost every category.
I mean, Jesus, you barely have any money at all, why give it back?
Cuz it's the politics of hate.
So, Republicans win based on saying, look at those bums taken from you, and
they oftentimes with a heavy handed implication that it's black voters, right?
And so, they will go towards, yeah, look at those bombs, they tell you know what?
I'm not letting them take from you anymore.
They weren't even taking from us from the federal government, that's why they're
doing it because the Republican party is filled to the room with hate.
>> And what Tate Reeves does here is what you see from a lot of right wingers.
Where they try to paint all these individuals as people who refuse to work.
They just wanna sit on their lazy bums and do nothing, but in reality, the majority
of people who were receiving this rental assistance were in fact working.
It's just that the wages are so
incredibly low that it's impossible to afford the astronomical rents
that we're seeing not just in Mississippi, but all across the country.
Many Americans are experiencing that including Republicans who have full time
jobs, but that still doesn't cover the cost of putting a roof over your head.
So let's talk about the numbers here.
In February for instance, Mississippi today reported based on information
provided by the Home Corporation.
That 66% of the applicants approved to receive funds through
the program were in fact employed, they were working.
So RAMP is gone, but housing prices are still on the rise.
So you take a look at the rise in housing prices in Mississippi and
you can see from that graph that it does shoot up even in 2022.
And that doesn't even take into account how much housing costs
increased beginning in 2020.
When basically, single family homes are being snatched up by private equity firms
that was pricing ordinary people out of the house housing market.
And they had no choice but to rent, that increased demand for rental units,
but there's still a limited supply.
So that's part of the reason why price has gone up so much.
The latest US Census data available for the week ending July 11 showed that 44.5%
of adult Mississippi and surveyed reported being behind on their rent or mortgage.
With eviction or foreclosure in the next two months being either very likely or
somewhat likely.
So look, I think the best thing you can do as a voter in Mississippi is not
allow yourself to get played by the manufactured culture war narratives.
Republican lawmakers sell to you, vote them out and
vote in politicians who actually wanna make your life better.
Because all you see from Republican lawmakers,
whether it be on a state level or federal level is selling the politics of fear,
selling you negative stuff, right?
If you vote for someone solely based on negative rights,
taking rights away from people and that makes no difference to your life,
it doesn't improve your life in any material way.
Your priorities are screwed up bro, get it together.
>> And by the way, so Anna is also talking about the politics of hate, but
it's not just on racial issues guys.
Look at it, poor Mississippi a lot of them are Republicans and
the Republican party doesn't just hate certain minorities,
they have great disdain for working class Americans.
Remember two thirds of them are working and he called them bums anyway, why?
Cuz they're not rich, wake up Republican voters.
You think your politicians, they look down their nose at you including
down Donald Trump, he says, I don't wanna remember what he said this.
I don't want poor people in my cabinet.
I want rich people, cuz he thinks rich means you're awesome and special and
if you're poor working class or middle class,
he thinks, you're no good at all, take their money away, their bums.
They don't like their voters either.
>> In the most recent legislative session you wanna know what the state
lawmakers did in Mississippi?
The largest tax cut in Mississippi history was implemented that
will lower the state income tax from 5% to 4% over the next four years.
>> Of course, the rich get a giant tax cut.
Of course, when you vote for a Republican, yes, you're voting for Hayden.
Some, a lot of the republican voters love that, right?
But the hate is not gonna get implemented.
The main thing that's gonna get implemented is they're gonna pick your
pocket and give it to the rich, you schmuck.
>> The state's legislature allocated $279 less to K-12
school districts for the 2022 and 2023 school year.
Yeah, they rob you blind.
But I'm sure you getting to strip rights away from people who have lifestyles you
disagree with, keeps you warm at night and keeps a roof over your head, I'm sure.
Let's get our priorities straight.
These politicians are playing all of us and
it's time that we hold them accountable, get them out of office and
actually elect leaders who want to make our lives better.