# The real story of the welfare queen, crazy article! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 2, 2014, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688 "2014-01-02T07:35:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/1 "2014-01-02T07:35:29Z")
> **[The Real Story of Linda Taylor, America’s Original Welfare Queen](https://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/12/linda_taylor_welfare_queen_ronald_reagan_made_her_a_notorious_american_villain.html)** > > Ronald Reagan loved to tell stories. When he ran for president in 1976, many of Reagan’s anecdotes converged on a single point: The welfare state is br ... That is a badly sourced(but understandable) and jaw dropping article. How and or why was it so impossible to untangle this woman’s web of alias and bullshit? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/2 "2014-01-02T09:53:53Z")
Quite a con lady. She reminds me of Bonnie Lee Bakley. She lived a similar life with multiple identities and mailboxes. Running a lonely hearts scam and conning old men out of money. Prostituting out her daughter. Linda Taylor was more dangerous. It sounds like she was capable of nearly anything. ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/3 "2014-01-02T10:11:12Z")
Good story. That kind of reporting requires a lot of work. Nice to see it still being done. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/4 "2014-01-02T15:10:28Z")
Sweet Jesus. Kidnapping, murder. She _threatened a Chicago cop._ And the length of the list - it was exhausting just to read about. And the thing everyone knows about her is the welfare cheating (which was probably the least destructive thing she ever did). It’s as if Hannibal Lecter were infamous for double billing his patients. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/5 "2014-01-02T15:21:54Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > It’s as if Hannibal Lecter were infamous for double billing his patients. They did have to put something in the pot for lunch. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/6 "2014-01-02T15:25:15Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > And the thing everyone knows about her is the welfare cheating (which was probably the least destructive thing she ever did). To state the obvious - as a result of her welfare cheating story, an entire ideological political belief system is rampant. _Thankssss_: rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/7 "2014-01-02T16:01:37Z")
And yet people denied that she did anything all that serious: > [@Welfare, the deserving and the truly needy...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welfare-the-deserving-and-the-truly-needy/217419/42): > > "Over a period of about five years, Reagan told the story of the “Chicago welfare queen” who had 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards, and collected benefits for “four nonexisting deceased husbands,” bilking the government out of “over $150,000.” The real welfare recipient to whom Reagan referred was actually convicted for using two different aliases to collect $8,000. Reagan continued to use his version of the story even after the press pointed out the actual facts of the case to him. " > > From the “Mendacity Index”, _Washington Monthly_ > [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0309.mendacity-index.html](http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0309.mendacity-index.html) > > Its one of the oldest, and most cynical, plays in the Tighty Righty playbook: pit the poor against the poorer. Clap the working man on the shoulder and tell him that he’s the salt of the earth, that you share his “work ethic” values. Tell him how he too could afford a SUV and a cabin on the lake, college for his kids, if only it weren’t for that shiftless, no account welfare queen. It’s certainly true that one story, no matter how dramatic, proves little to nothing about the question of whther welfare recipients as a group were costing the system large amounts of money via fraud. But it’s equally true that Reagan did not exaggerate in any great respect the story of one single example of a woman who did, and those that claimed he was exaggerating were incorrect to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/8 "2014-01-02T18:55:35Z")
That’s a hell of a story about an amazing con artist. I kept thinking: I wouldn’t want to be the salesman trying to sell her a car. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/9 "2014-01-02T19:01:24Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > That’s a hell of a story about an amazing con artist. I kept thinking: I wouldn’t want to be the salesman trying to sell her a car. Whenever I read stories like this I wonder, “What could they have done if fate had caused them to be born in a higher socio-economic class or they had access to a higher education?”, because quite honestly it does take some intelligence to work these cons and stay alive living like this. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/10 "2014-01-02T19:12:08Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > But it’s equally true that Reagan did not exaggerate in any great respect the story of one single example of a woman who did, and those that claimed he was exaggerating were incorrect to do so. Reading about the ones that originally called Reagan deceptive, many did acknowledge that that person committed fraud, the exaggeration of Reagan was to make it sound like if that was a common thing. It also was not good for the narrative to mention that the “queen” was arrested for fraud. Meaning that with proper enforcement the Reagan tactic of nutpicking was indeed an exaggeration as the intention was to reduce wellfare. As many of his ideas on welfare were in the end accepted, it is important to see where it has led us: [http://inplainsight.nbcnews.com/\_news/2013/08/21/20052531-people-think-everyone-who-is-poor-gets-welfare-and-its-just-not-true-how-the-myth-of-the-welfare-queen-died?lite](http://inplainsight.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/21/20052531-people-think-everyone-who-is-poor-gets-welfare-and-its-just-not-true-how-the-myth-of-the-welfare-queen-died?lite) > [@](#): > > Two decades after President Bill Clinton promised to “end welfare as we know it” – and nearly four decades since President Ronald Reagan repeatedly derided the “welfare queen” while on the 1976 presidential campaign trail – far fewer families are receiving cash and voucher assistance, and a larger share of less educated single moms are working. > > “People think everyone who is poor gets welfare, and it’s just not true,” said Heather Hahn, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute. > > Still, experts are deeply divided on how successful tax and welfare reform efforts of the 1990s have been in improving the lives of less educated single mothers, especially in the wake of the Great Recession and weak recovery. > > About 1.72 million families received direct assistance during an average month in 2012 through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, according to the latest data from the federal government’s Office of Family Assistance. That’s about half the 3.94 million families who received TANF in 1997, according to an Urban Institute report funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. > > In addition, about 62 percent of never-married moms ages 20 to 49 with a high school degree or less were working in 2011, according to an analysis of Current Population Survey data prepared by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning think tank. That’s up from about 51 percent in 1992, but down from 76 percent in 2000, before two recessions hit low-skill workers hard. > > Welfare-to-work > Welfare has not been the same since the mid-1990s, when the old program, called Aid to Families with Dependent Children, was replaced by TANF. The new program requires that recipients do 20 to 30 hours a week of work-related activities, such as job hunting or community service, among other stipulations. > > Most states also only allow adults to collect TANF for a maximum of five years over the course of their lifetime, or less. > > “The expectation is that you need to be looking for work,” said LaDonna Pavetti, vice president for family income support policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “And if you don’t, you will either have your benefits reduced or you’ll lose them entirely.” > > Many more low-educated single moms did start working soon after the program was introduced, but experts say welfare-to-work cannot take all the credit for that. The late-1990s welfare reform effort also coincided with the expansion of the earned income tax credit, which provides financial assistance to low-wage workers, and a strong labor market. > > “There really were three factors: One was welfare reform, one was expansion of the EITC and one was (the) economy,” Pavetti said. “Welfare reform was not the biggest role in that.”’ > > Working, but struggling > These days, Kathryn Edin, a professor of public policy at Harvard University, said the good news is that many single mothers who used to be longer-term welfare recipients are now workers who only need assistance once in a while. > > But the bad news for single moms with low education and skills is that in the past decade or so, it’s become increasingly difficult to find a stable, full-time job that pays well. That means some moms may now be working very hard, and still find that their families are at poverty or near-poverty levels. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/11 "2014-01-02T19:15:06Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Whenever I read stories like this I wonder, “What could they have done if fate had caused them to be born in a higher socio-economic class or they had access to a higher education?”, because quite honestly it does take some intelligence to work these cons and stay alive living like this. She could have made a killing in sales, whether real estate or vehicles. But people who scam for a living have a particular obsession with it; I’m sure a successful con, however small, is like a narcotic. Hell, she was even scamming while in prison. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/12 "2014-01-02T22:13:19Z")
Thanks for the link. The woman sounds like a pure psychopath. It is high time that public opinion knew more about psychopaths. [These good](http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/sanity_1.PdF) [books](http://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1388660908&sr=8-5&keywords=psychopath)on the subject say that there is about 1 in every twenty persons. A minority of psychopaths turns to crime, but once they do, the chance of rehabilitation is pretty much zero. People like that cut a swath of misery through their fellow men. It is nowadays possible to diagnose psychopaths with MRI scans. I would be in favour of locking criminal psychopaths up for life. So, I still think it is reprehensible for politicians to point an accusing finger at people on welfare and label them as “welfare queens”. [In another thread in GQ, I asked for data on the actual abuse of welfare, and a general number most people agreed on was 2 %.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=597053) ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/13 "2014-01-03T01:53:18Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > She could have made a killing in sales, whether real estate or vehicles. But people who scam for a living have a particular obsession with it; I’m sure a successful con, however small, is like a narcotic. Hell, she was even scamming while in prison. That’s what always makes me wonder about people with such talent and smarts - why bother? They’d be able to make a damn good honest living if they tried. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/14 "2014-01-03T02:13:47Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > That’s what always makes me wonder about people with such talent and smarts - why bother? They’d be able to make a damn good honest living if they tried. Because a good honest living doesn’t give them the same thrill. And also, based on my own experiences, they want to feel like they’re smarter than the people they con, that the police the prosecutor ---
**Author:** ![SerafinaPekala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SerafinaPekala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SerafinaPekala)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/15 "2014-01-03T02:15:11Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > That’s what always makes me wonder about people with such talent and smarts - why bother? They’d be able to make a damn good honest living if they tried. I think there must be a “Get Over” gene that runs rampant in some people and, as Chefguy says, it must be like a narcotic. To get over on others. For some reason they dont want to play by the rules and operate within the mainstream. And of course, they dont want to pay taxes on income. The whole “entitlement” idea comes into play: they feel entitled somehow to whatever is free for the taking. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-story-of-the-welfare-queen-crazy-article/677688/16 "2014-01-03T03:06:51Z")
Another thing is that they get to make their own hours. Some people have a really hard time keeping a schedule. And they don’t have to answer to anyone. Sure, some people work for themselves legitimately but that’s not something everyone can jump right into. And then there’s just inertia. A lot of these people start their life of crime before they’re even old enough to have a real job, so then there’s no point in time where quitting it and starting at the bottom with a minimum-wage job seems like a good idea.