"In Chicago, they found a woman who holds the record," he said. "She used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans' benefits for four nonexistent deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare. ... Her tax-free cash income alone has been running $150,000 a year." Reagan's exaggerated character became known as the welfare queen.
Over 40 years later, the Republican Party is still trying to hunt down this lazy scheming black women who uses her food stamps to buy filet mingon and lobster at the grocery store for her 12 kids and lavish lifestyle while new men jump in and out of her bed every night, since Reagan conjured her in 1976.
None of them have personally met her because they don't reside in the same areas but they're all sure they know somebody whose paying for steaks and shrimp with her food stamps but now while being goaded on by the current inhabitant of the white house, they are setting out to put an end to this conniving user once and for all by ensuring she would have to get off her shiftless butt and get a job. The only problem is that she doesn't exist.
The assumption that those who receive food assistance don't work is flat out false, as nearly one-third of all SNAP households report an income. Many families rely on SNAP when they are between jobs or because they are among millions of American’s working minimum wage jobs.
Despite significant increases in enrollment during the recession, SNAP error rates have gone down every year since 1998. In addition, when Congress passed the the Improper Payments Act in 2000, SNAP was among the few programs to meet its high standards. The U.S. department of Agriculture, who administer the SNAP Program, monitors it constantly and they hit states with high error rates with large fines and other sanctions.
Proposals such as work requirements and asset limits accomplish nothing except for ensuring people spend down so they don't have a bank account or any sort of savings and an increased patterns of churning (getting on and off SNAP) people also may not understand eligibility guidelines so they don't utilize the service.They also create an administrative burden to agencies and counties. When Pennsylvania implemented an asset limit, the Dept. of welfare found that it costed them $3.5 million a year.
So the next time you hear someone complaining about "lazy users" or a customer taking too long at the checkout because they're paying with food stamps, tell them that it could be a friend or a relative who is simply trying to make ends meet. And as for that elusive "welfare queen"? She's just a figment of the imaginations of the uninformed
