Two recent items in the news caught your humble blogger's eye and they involve welfare fraud.
Oh, to hear defenders of the way our layers and layers of welfare is good for society, they are crickets chirping when the following stories are brought to light.
I will go backwards and start with Amanda Clayton, a resident of Michigan.
Miss Clayton had the luck to be a million-dollar winner in the "Make Me Rich" state lottery show.
And a wise woman Miss Clayton is.
Miss Clayton took the $1,000,000 in a lump sum which meant after taxes she was left with about $500,000. Not chump change at all.
And again, Miss Clayton was wise and bought two houses.
But one little detail about this.
Miss Clayton was and continues to receive food stamps to the tune of $200 a month.
Now it is not the amount that she gets but after winning the state lottery contest that she is getting any assistance whatsoever.
But the other catch to this is that it is not illegal because, after all, Miss Clayton is not working and has no visible means of income.
I guess $500,000 in state lottery winnings do not count. But it is legal according to Michigan state law.
Get the reaction Miss Clayton has when confronted by a Detroit news reporter:
"I thought that they would cut me off, but since they didn't, I thought maybe it was OK because I'm not working," Clayton said. "I feel that it's OK because, I mean, I have no income, and I have bills to pay. I have two houses."
Oh hell, this just gets a WTF?!?!?!
Really, Miss Clayton, have you not one once of shame?
Well, mama Clayton, Euline, does not seem to get that at this point, she has a lot of money and should not be asking the taxpayers, you know the people that pay into the food stamp program, for any more assistance. Here is mama Clayton:
"I'm not saying it's the right thing to do. But it's nobody's business if she's not breaking the law."
Your humble blogger is at this point pounding his head on this desk.
Mama Clayton, you should have taught your daughter better than that. But it is obviously the way that you think, so what can we expect.
Get this whole picture.
An unemployed woman, at least collecting food stamps, goes on a lottery show, a state lottery, wins a million bucks, and sees nothing wrong with taking a measly $200 bucks a month. Because after all, she now has two houses.
Thankfully, a Michigan state legislator, Rep. Dale Zorn, is submitting legislation to put a stop to this practice.
For it is not the first time that this has happened to a Michigan lottery winner.
Leroy Fick won a $2,000,000 state lottery jackpot and he too kept leaching off the taxpayers.
But now that this Amanda Clayton has been exposed, there is a strong push to change the rules so that this does not continue to go on.
Just because something is not illegal does not make it immoral. And what Miss Clayton is doing, with a tacit OK from mama is robbing people.
It is about time that Michigan reforms this obvious loophole in the assistance laws.
Now to a more current case of welfare fraud that is even more hideous.
Now I would like to introduce Anthony "Chopper" Garcia, a convicted killer in the state of California. Mr. Chopper, er Garcia, is so proud of his conviction of murder that it is tatted on his chest.
Nice. Very nice.
Well, one thing for Mr. Garcia is he is a pretty smart homie.
He conspired with his papi, Juan Garcia, and a couple, not just one but two girlfriends to defraud the state unemployment insurance fund to the tune of $30,000 dollars.
Thirty frickin thousand dollars.
But here is Dan Stephens, a spokesman for the Employment Development Department, and how he explains the obvious:
"Certainly, being in prison would make an individual ineligible to receive unemployment benefits since he or she would not meet the requirement of being available to accept work,"
No, really dude? You're kidding right? I mean, if homie is in jail, well he can't work right? Shouldn't he be entitled to the same bennies as everyone else?
Well, not when you conspire with others to defraud the EDD. And the best part? Homie Garcia was sharing in the taxpayer largess with some of his fellow gangbangers.
Such a good and kind-hearted killer. To share the wealth with his fellow compadres in crime.
OK, the two above stories are what have been reported. How about the fraud waste and abuse that is never reported on? That happens all the time.
And I know, you supporters of the current welfare system will tell me that I focused on a Black woman and Hispanic male.
See, to me race has not one thing to do with the scamming the system. People do it no matter their place of national origin. The reality is that if one is willing to game the system, they will. It is just a fact.
I remember back in 1976 when Ronald Reagan was running for president and he was harassed for describing one of the more outlandish examples of 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."
Now according to the Wikipedia entry the above is taken from, it is a conglomeration of stories. It is not a particular case.
No matter. Mr. Reagan was of course raked over the coals for daring to point out that it does happen. That back then welfare fraud was occurring pretty regularly.
And now, people are doing it with regularity and impunity that no one seems to bat an eye. And in fact, people will defend such actions.
It is the result of the dependency culture that the United States if suffering from at this point in our history.
We are treating people that have the brains and wherewithal as if they are criminals. And people that game the government for bennies as heroes.
Is there any hard outrage over Miss Clayton? Or Mr. Homie Garcia? Well there should be.
When any presidential candidate will mention this in their campaigns, then I will believe that they want to do something about this insidious mentality. That they want to change the way public assistance is done in this nation.
Because when there is not a government to to turn to to defraud and or game, they will have to learn to be like the rest of us. Work hard and pay taxes and realize that they are a part of American life and not just takers.
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