76-03-A7

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Welfare

Transcript A news item about welfare foolishness has brought back some campaign memories I’d like to share with you. I'll be right back. The other day a news item told of a woman on Aid To Dependent Children who came into $14,544 cash through an accident claim. On the advice of welfare workers she went on a six week spending spree to get rid of the money so she could remain eligible for welfare. That brought to my mind an example I cited during the primary campaigns of a Chicago woman who-was found to who was reported to be receiving welfare under 80 different names at 30 different addresses. Even though the story had been widely carried in the press campaigns being what they are I would run into cynics who thought I’d padded the story for political purposes. Well thanks to the chief investigative reporter of the Chicago Tribune2 I can verify and update my story, And it won't do anything for the image of welfare workers who tried to hush the story up. They had been touting controls which they said made welfare fraud a minor problem when the "welfare queen" as she’s now called suddenly burst on the scene. It all started with a reported theft of $18,000 in jewels and furs. Two Chicago detectives ended up arresting the robbery victim for filing a false police report. Apparently there had been no robbery, but their investigation had turned up in the victim's plush apartment bundles of public aid checks and records. When they reported their findings to the public aid office, officials there passed the buck to the State's Attorney's Office, he shoved it off on the Attorney General who promptly told the detectives to take it up with the Feds. The Feds didn’t want it at all so the detective told his story to the Chicago Tribune. Be grateful for a free press.—it made the front page. A State Senator chairman3 of the advisory committee on public aid termed the case unbelievable and put two fraud investigators on it. They stated, "We could spend the rest of our lives checking out all the cases on her but it would be worth doing because she's taught us every possible loophole in the welfare regulations." I said I would update my story of 80 names and 30 addresses. Here goes! The trail extends through 14 states. She has used 127 names, posed as a mother of 14 children at one time, 7 at another, signed up twice with the same case worker in 4 days and once while on welfare posed as an open heart surgeon complete with office. She has 50 social security numbers and 50 addresses in Chicago alone plus an untold number of telephones. She claims also to be the widow—let’s make that plural—of 2 naval officers who were killed in action. Now the Department of Agriculture is looking into the massive number of food stamps she’s been collecting. She has 3 new cars, a full length mink coat and her take is estimated at a million dollars. I wish this had a happy ending but the public aid office according to the news accounts story refuses to cooperate. She’s still collecting welfare checks she can use to build up her defense fund. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. In Reagan's Path to Victory, this transcript is preceded by the following: Reagan’s tale of the “welfare queen” is part of American political folklore, with many people doubting such egregious fraud ever took place. However, numerous articles in the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times from 1974 to 1976 show that not only did the “welfare queen” exist, the fraud she committed was even worse than Reagan described.1		Details Batch Number 76-03-A7 Production Date 10/18/1976 Book/Page RPtV-75 Audio No Youtube? No
		Added Notes from the book: The “welfare queen”—so dubbed by the Chicago press in 1974—was an attractive 47 year old black woman whom Joel Edelman, the former director of the Illinois Department of Public Aid, described as being “without a doubt, the biggest welfare cheat of all time.” Her name was Linda Taylor. She had three new 1974 cars—a Cadillac, a Lincoln, and a Chevrolet station wagon. She had dozens of false names, used over 30 different addresses, and had 25 phone numbers and three social security cards. She owned three houses that she rented. It was estimated that she received Social Security and welfare checks under as many as 80 names in different states around the country. In one year alone they estimated she received $154,000 in welfare. The authorities were reluctant to prosecute, perhaps because of embarrassment, but she was finally convicted in Chicago on March 17, 1977 of “welfare fraud and perjury” on a few of the charges against her. Chicago Tribune, September 29 (p. 3), 30 (p. 1), October 5 (p. 12), 12 (p. 3), 13 (p. 3), November 14 (p. 4), December 1 (p. 25), 10 (Sec. 2 p. 5); 1974; January 10 (p. 3), March 2 (p. 38), June 26 (pp. 1,19), September 22 (pp. 1, 19), 1975; The New York Times, December 15, 1974, p. 58; February 15 (p. 51), 29 (p. 42), 1976; January 9 (p. 39), March 19 (p. 8), 1977. George Bliss State Senator Don A. Moore (R). George Bliss, "Walker Hid Aid Fraud: Legislator," Chicago Tribune, January 10, 1975, p. 3.