An Open Letter to Mike Huckabee - Bastard of the Day

"Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have healthcare," Mike Huckabee during a radio interview. 

Here is the damage controlling clarification:  "My comments were about the statistical reality that most single moms are very poor, under-educated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death," he wrote. "That's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that society often glorifies and glamorizes the idea of having children out of wedlock."  (For the record, he was speaking directly about the actress, Natalie Portman).

Now here's the truth.

78% of all single parent women are employed (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002-2003). 

45% of all single parent women hold down more than one job. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002-2003).

Single parent women experience the highest rate of unemployment, and receive the lowest rate of pay regardless of their education. (Economic Roundtable, 2004).

While the hourly wage for women without children is 90% of a man’s, the comparable figure for women with children is 70%. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002-2003).

And the Winner is.....Fewer than 17% of all single moms receive government assistance even in the minor form of food stamps. (Economic Roundtable, 2002).


Mr. Huckabee,

When I was living with my abusive, employed Army Soldier husband, we earned exactly HALF of what I make today as a single mother.  With my husband, we received tax payer funded healthcare in the form of Tricare and many, many tax free military benefits, again, a gift from the taxpayers.   

I want you to look me in the eye and repeat your former statements.  I want you to tell me that as a single mother my four, Yes, FOUR college degrees don't exist.

I want you tell me I do not make double what my soldier ex makes. 

I want you to tell me that I do not have an excellent, secure career and that I do not receive unsolicited job offers at least weekly.

I want you to tell me my children do not have healthcare.

Repeat your urban legends to the face of this well educated (going for degree #5 as we speak), well employed Single Mother of five children.  Tell me and my children that we should have stayed with my abusive husband because a broken hip and pelvis is preferable to the calm and peaceful life I have created for us.  Tell me I need your government aid.  Go right ahead and tell this Mother your deceitful, incidiary untruths.  Coward, tell her if you dare.