Has anyone here ever met a welfare queen?

[LaydeeBug]

If so, what qualifies them for the title?

Because the precedent OP to this one proves a much larger point: they have been framing the fucking narrative for so long that we are boxing their shadows while they equivocate to our facts.

They need to be TOLD. I **promise** you

[Foamfollower]

1. I once met Carly Fiorina

I think that qualifies.

She sure as hell is a corporate welfare queen.

[moriah]

5. Never met Carly despite working for her company back when she was a CEO...

.... so I guess my post still counts as true.

[Foamfollower]

12. I met her at a conference.

She's a moron.

[YoungDemCA]

33. Everyone I've ever met who worked at HP (or knew people who worked there) when she was CEO HATED her

Like, absolutely loathed her. And this was true regardless of their overall political views. Should tell you something.

[Lithos]

23. Was going to post the same thing...

I think she qualifies as a **welfare queen**

[hrmjustin]

2. Everyone I go to Wall Street in Manhattan.

[moriah]

3. Nope. Have met many widows...

... raising their deceased husband's children on the survivor's benefits from Social Security, and families with disabled people in them who are struggling to keep food on the table who are on SNAP.

Which is exactly what those benefits are FOR.

[LaydeeBug]

9. exactly. We keep letting them set up strawmen. nt

[jeanmarc]

4. Yes, I was made a knight

Got a Cadillac out of it.

[Blue_true]

6. Never met one, neither have I seen people buying steak and lobster

with EBT cards. I am sure some abuse happens, but from what I observe, the abuse is minor when compared to people getting properly fed.

[phylny]

34. I work with lots of families on some form of welfare and your statement is quite accurate.

They do not cook. They heat up. Processed, crappy food that fills their bellies.

[Nwgirl503]

39. The things in other people's carts that catch my eye

are the abundance of processed foods. No real, fresh food to be found very often. That bothers me more than how they're paying for it. I don't care if you swipe an Amex Black Card or an EBT card...that food is shit!

On this topic tho, throughout my life I've known people who have gamed the system. I'd still rather have money going to those few than to corporate welfare or tax breaks for millionaires or billionaires. Or the plethora of other crap expenditures our government wastes money on every single day.

[Warpy]

7. I've known a lot of women on welfare

and I never met a single one of them who fit that description, not even the ones from families where women had the first kid in their early to mid teens and were on it for multiple generations. Every single one of them worked damned hard to raise their kids and make sure they got enough to eat every day and clothes that fit them so the kids at school wouldn't pick on them. Every single one of them had a struggle because there was never enough of anything.

You live very badly on public assistance. You get used to rats and roaches fast and no one does anything about either.

I also knew a few who had given up and let the kids raise themselves while they turned tricks for drug money so they could check out on their lives. All you can do is hope those kids find foster families who aren't nightmares.

I've been trying to change that narrative for years, ever since St. Ronnie came up with it so he wouldn't have to say "n******r," which even he knew was too ugly a word to use, even to bigots.

The "welfare queen" doesn't exist anywhere but in the imaginations of soft, pink people who work in air conditioned comfort in the suburbs.

[tekriter]

8. How about a welfare duchess?

My wife's aunt would probably qualify.

When my wife and I first started dating, and I began meeting her large family, it struck me that they were quite clearly divided into two types - workers and leeches. The worst leech of all was an aunt who had somehow managed to keep collecting AFDC for her over-21 kids for years. Finally got caught but only paid back a pittance. No surprise, then, that her oldest son was jailed for stealing from the furniture store he worked for.

When welfare reform came about, and her two daughters lost their welfare because they never got jobs, the aunt screamed bloody murder because they were supposed to cut off all the niggers, not her kids.

[Thomas Hurt]

13. doesn't that make them libertarians not welfare queens?

you know, do what you want and if people aren't clever enough to twig to what you are doing....TS.

[Warpy]

30. Or Warren Jeffs Mormons

They made a huge deal of starving the beast by getting welfare and SNAP for all the wives they weren't legally married to, adding new ones to increase their income but keeping them all on starvation diets and the kids living in hand me downs.

Of course, they were Welfare Kings. The women got nothing but yearly pregnancies.

[Thomas Hurt]

32. or squatting your cattle on federal lands and not paying your grazing fees.

[LaydeeBug]

40. amen. nt

[Calculating]

10. Corporate welfare queens maybe

Like the daughter of Joe Manchin who takes advantage of a government enforced monopoly to charge outrageous prices for epi-pens.

[Squinch]

11. You mean like Tillerson?

[Solly Mack]

14. I've known people who lied to get aid, but the fact is, what little aid they got

didn't make them rich. It didn't even get them out of poverty.

So, knowing full they were lying to me, I didn't do or say a thing.

Why?

Because they needed food. Just that simple. They needed food. What little they saved by lying to me wasn't used to buy fancy cars or take expensive trips - what little they saved by lying allowed them to pay for childcare while they worked a low paying job which barely covered rent, utilities, and groceries. Not to mention transportation and other necessary expenses.

So, no. I've never met one of the corporate titans who rely on government money.

But I have met and known many people in need of actual help.

So I did what I could.

[Shrike47]

21. Yes, I met them too. And struggled to help them.

When I was an assistance worker in the late 60's in LA County, if you already had 10 or more children and birthed another, you got an additional $4 a month. Lotta party in that $4, you betcha!
People lied. They had to to survive.

[Solly Mack]

25. Many of my mothers were single and working in chicken plants.

Anyone who thinks a chicken plant paycheck can pay all the bills is a liar or a fool. Or they are in a multi-working family and everyone chips in to the kitty.

Back breaking work that I know firsthand as when I worked for the AFL-CIO/Meat Packers I was asst. to the primary bargainer for area plants - one plant I also worked at to get to know what I was working for - and let me tell you what I told my "line boss" the day I walked out. I said, I can't do this anymore. I feel as if that I don't walk out now, I will be here until I die and that won't take long.

I know this how the other workers felt. But they didn't have options. I quit the plant, quit the AFL-CIO (still support unions) and became a teacher.

Like you said, they lied to survive. The government, both federal, state, and local, forced them to lie to live.

We made sure those in need got the food goods the government allotted us to give out - surplus of the canned beans, peanut butter, etc., until those surpluses gave out finally. The old white labeled welfare goods that were handed out at one time. I won't lie, I was struggling too, as a Head Start teacher, regardless of education, doesn't make a lot of money. I would grab a cheese hunk when they rarely appeared and anyone who thinks "government cheese" is a joke has never tasted a grilled cheese made with it. Made great Mac-n-cheese too.

Saved me a few dollars. I love cheese. Still felt guilty. Bummer. Still do it seems.

[McCamy Taylor]

15. Haven't met them, but the Koch Brothers are Welfare Queens

[LaydeeBug]

41. spot on. And the sense of entitlement these motherfuckers have.... nt

[QC]

16. Wall Street is full of them.

Also the mining and timber industries.

[manicraven]

17. Not a "queen" but definitely two who were on welfare and shouldn't have been...

One, who is closely related to me, had a $15/hour job with top-notch benefits and good working hours, and she started going to work late, not doing a good job (on purpose), eventually just didn't show up at all, and was fired. Then she collected welfare, received a subsidized apartment, food stamps, and qualified for healthcare under the state's low-income plan (she had one child at the time). What was extremely frustrating with her is that she willfully made these decisions, ditching her job to live on welfare.

The other is also closely related to me, and she refused to go to work or through training offered to her for at least 10 years and somehow skated through the system receiving low-income housing, etc. She was also a single mother of one child, and the apartment the state provided was very, very nice. She managed to go on vacations, etc., but never could work or even keep the apartment clean. It was filthy. At certain intervals, the state would send someone to check on the apartment and do a white glove test, but they'd give her ample notice, so she'd clean it up ahead of their visits and pass the inspection. Finally, the state told her to find a job or accept the training as her benefits were ending. At that point, she had no choice and stepped up and went to work.

Anyway, both women were immature and receiving aid was preferable to going to work every day.

[BluesRunTheGame]

18. "The Two Bums"

The bum on the rods is hunted down as an enemy of mankind,
The other is driven around to his club, is feted, wined and dined.

And they who curse the bum on the rods as the essence of all that's bad,
Will greet the other with a willing smile and extend a hand so glad.

The bum on the rods is a social flea who gets an occassional bite,
The bum on the plush is a social leech, bloodsucking day and night.

The bum on the rods is a load so light that his weight we scarcely feel,
But it takes the labor of dozens of folks to furnish the other a meal.

As long as we sanction the bum on the plush the other will always be there,
But rid ourselves of the bum on the plush and the other will dissappear.

Then make an intelligent organised kick, get rid of the weights that crush!
Don't worry about the bum on the rods -- get rid of the bum on the plush!

[democrank]

20. Thank you, BRTG.

Seven minutes well spent.

[JI7]

19. never met them but the entire Trump trash family

[edhopper]

22. No

But I knew a Dancing Queen.

[H2O Man]

24. I've never met

Donald Trump, but I believe he and his ilk are welfare queens.

[trixie2]

26. When I was in 3rd grade in 1969

I had a teacher who must have spent the summer in UK. She brought her English bf back with her and he came to school everyday and played guitar. She would tell us stories of how her plane was filled with people on welfare. She went on and on and on. I told my parents and they and other parents went to the principal. The adults were outraged. Blue collar area and very liberal at that. She was not back the next year.

[TNLib]

27. No I had a friend who was on welfare when she was young

They were Cuban and the mom was single and didn't speak English. Over time the whole family was no longer on welfare and the mother actually ended up owning a bakery before she passed away.

[Freddie]

28. No but recently...

I'm friends on FB with a woman from church who is a Trump fan, we don't comment on each other's political posts. She recently needed to see a neurologist (had fainted at a Trump rally, for real) and posted a long diatribe about how she couldn't get an appt with the doctor for months "because I'm on Medicaid". (They called her back and gave her an appt). She's able-bodied, her kid is grown, she doesn't work as she cares for her mom with dementia. The only way she has MA is because of the ACA and Gov. Wolf did the expansion. And she enthusiastically supports the party that wants to take away her health care. I keep my mouth shut and don't point that out, why bother.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

29. My girlfriend's entire family in Nevada probably qualifies

They're all on dubious disability claims and collecting every benefit and subsidy they can find. A few of them tried double-dipping in California too but got caught.

[YoungDemCA]

31. Yes. They're called corporate executives and other rich pricks who live large at society's expense.

nt

[Quixote1818]

35. No, not even close but I do have relatives who work the system to a point

My niece married into a very poor family with lots of issues and when you are around them much of the talk is about working the system. That will always be a bit of a problem but the wealthy taking advantage of the system is a much, much bigger problem and more costly.

[nini]

36. I've been on welfare as a single mom

Last edited Mon Apr 3, 2017, 12:34 AM - Edit history (1)

It was after a major car accident and I had an 8 year old kid to take care of and could not work. I was in a wheelchair for a year and had to fight for even getting what I did because I was considered 'employed' because I was still technically an employee of the US Postal Service. I had to get a supervisor involved to get my kid some health insurance and help to pay rent and feed him. I wasn't about to quit my job because I planned on going back to it one day though I was never able to.

So, let me tell you. We were living the high life for sure!!! Top ramen and turkey hotdogs, fruit and salad. Nothing special even if we wanted it as there wasn't enough left to live like a queen. I'm just lucky I had people to help me otherwise being I was in a wheelchair or God knows what would have happened to us.

ANYONE who believes it's a lucrative path is a fool. It helped me when I needed it and that's what it's for. It pisses me off to no end to hear people assume anyone on welfare wants to be - sometimes you just have to. I have since earned a BS in computer science and have worked full time since '92. I have more than paid back what I got when I needed it.

[doc03]

37. I have always heard of these welfare queens that have 6 or 8 kids

and make a fortune off of welfare, but never met one. According to the Trump voters they are everywhere and they
would be better off quitting their job and going on welfare too, but I never met one of them that tried it.

[mia]

38. It seems there are many ways to take advantage of the welfare system.

Snopes rates this article as a mixture of true and false.
http://www.snopes.com/new-american-way-life/

[HughBeaumont]

44. I'm not even getting why this was rated as a "Mixture".

Pretty much every descriptive of each program was done so in snarl terms, and the implication of the whole wingnut screed is that one individual can somehow easily achieve ALL of the various programs mentioned here in one fell swoop. That's an outright falsehood spurned from Faux News' gaggle of rich white anchors and writers.

The reason we're 18 trillion in debt is because Bewsh blew 6 trillion on wars and tax cuts for the rich and Obama had to bail Bewsh's fuck-up of a presidency (along with the auto and financial industries) out to avoid a catastrophe with the remainder. Man-Made recessions where money hoarded isn't money being circulated have consequences, RepubilCONNED. But hey, keep blaming all of your problems on the "career leeches" and the (insert racial, ethnic or gender slur here)s.

[mia]

45. I agree with you.

It's pretty much how Snopes explained it, too (except for the snarl).

[Rollo]

42. Have you met my mom?

She was the exact opposite of a welfare queen.

Finding herself a single mom with four kids in the mid-1960's, she got a job as a clerk in one of the most expensive cities in America.

One day she came home from work and with no small amount of pride announced that according to recently released federal poverty guidelines, we were living well under the poverty level. And that in an area where the cost of living was well above that of the rest of the nation, so it was even worse than the stats described.

But either as a result of pride, or a not entirely rational distrust of government, she refused even to apply for welfare. Had welfare not had such a social stigma perhaps she would have. I say this with not a little bitterness because the subsequent malnutrition I experienced, not to mention the social stigma of being a penniless teen, led to a lifetime of health and other issues. The old line, that hardship makes one stronger? Bullshit!

[Snarkoleptic]

43. I have, they can be found in high numbers at country clubs, in C-suites, and running mega churches.

Society will be better off when they're on the endangered list.