There's a woman in Chicago. She has eighty names, thirty addresses, twelve Social Security cards and is collecting veterans 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.
Welfare Queen
ReplyDelete"'Welfare Queen' Becomes Issue in Reagan Campaign" by John Fialka, Washington Star
ReplyDeleteFew people realize it, but Linda Taylor, a 47-year-old Chicago welfare recipient, has become a major campaign issue in the New Hampshire Republican Presidential primary. ...
Since Reagan never named a particular woman, the description can be viewed as an example of dramatic hyperbole. Despite claims that the woman never existed, the story seems to have been drawn from newspaper reports at the time. In 1976, the New York Times reported that a woman from Chicago, Linda Taylor, 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. The woman was ultimately found guilty of "welfare fraud and perjury" in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, the Associated Press reported on March 8, 1977 that "Joel Edelman, executive director of the Illinois Legislative Advisory Committee on Public Aid, has said his committee found that from early 1973 until mid-1974, [the woman] 'used 14 aliases to obtain $150,000 for medical assistance, cash assistance and bonus cash food stamps.' Edelman said, 'She went from district to district. She had a collection of wigs and was a master of disguise. She organized people and upwards of 100 aliases were used.'"