Poverty in the USA is a scandal

[The Grand Nudger]

It has always struck me as vindictive and petty to withhold living resources and basic human services for the poor and homeless. There should be a track out of that situation.

The term "welfare queen" is most often associated with Ronald Reagan who brought the idea to a national audience. During his 1976 presidential campaign, Reagan would tell the story of a woman from Chicago's South Side who was arrested for welfare fraud:

"She has eighty names, thirty addresses, twelve Social Security cards and is collecting veteran's benefits on four non-existing deceased husbands. And she is collecting Social Security on her cards. She's got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income is over $150,000."[4]

Since Reagan never named a particular woman, the description can be viewed as an example of dramatic hyperbole. Critics have pointed out that the woman described never existed,[5] and the story appears to have been drawn from newspaper reports at the time. In 1976, the New York Times reported that a woman from Chicago, Linda Taylor,[6] was charged with using four aliases and of cheating the government out of $8,000. She appeared again in the newspaper while the Illinois Attorney General continued investigating her case.[7] The woman was ultimately found guilty of "welfare fraud and perjury" in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.[8]

REF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_queen

I love hyperbole that justifies ideology. 8$k is a far cry from 150$k.

Not to mention that the problem in both the bullshit hyperbole and the smaller actual reports was fraud, not welfare. Wait, wait wait, criminals commit crimes?...we should do something about this!...oh, we do....I see.

Jackasses.