New American Way of Life
As my role model and close personal friend, Jubilation T. Cornpone is oft saying: “I can tell you the whole truth, half the truth, or no truth at all.”
This article falls squarely in the “half-truth” department.
The item reproduced below has been circulating online since at least April 2015, and after it was published in the Miller County Liberal of Colquitt, Georgia, on 19 August 2015 it received a boost in popularity due to the implied authority of appearing in print. (Although it was attributed to “John Tabb,” an earlier version was credited to “Jeffery Rightmire.”)
‘How to get $75,000 in benefits every year from the US Government for you and your girlfriend?
Follow these proven simple steps
First … get a girlfriend… 1. Don’t marry her. 2. Use your mom’s address to receive your mail. 3. The guy buys a house. 4. Guy rents out house to his girl girlfriend who has 2 of his kids. 5. Section 8 will pay $900 a month for a 3 bedroom home. 6. Girlfriend signs up for Obamacare so guy doesn’t have to pay for family insurance. 7. Being a single mother, Girlfriend gets to go to college for free! 8. Girlfriend gets $600 a month for food stamps 9. Girlfriend gets free cell phone from US Government 10. Girlfriend get free utilities. 11. Guy moves into home but still uses mom’s house to receive mail. 12. Girlfriend claims one kid and guy claims one kid on taxes. Now you both get to claim head of household at $1,800 credit. 13. Girlfriend gets disability for being “crazy” or having a “bad back” at $1,800 a month and never has to work again. This plan is perfectly legal and is being executed now by millions of people.
A married couple with a stay at home mom yields $0 dollars. An unmarried couple with stay at home mom nets $21,600 disability + $10,800 free housing + $6,000 free Obamacare + $6,000 free food + $4,800 free utilities + $6,000 Pell Grant money to spend + $12,000 a year in college tuition free from Pell Grant + $8,800 tax benefit for being a single mother = $75,000 a year in benefits
As is often the case with email polemics focused on purported welfare abuse and taxpayer outrage, the “New American Way of Life” offers an implausible, far-fetched scenario to condemn those who use public assistance to make ends meet.
AS Don Feder says, ““We are a nation of dependents, mendicants, and misplaced charity. Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.”
The whole truth is…yes, there is welfare abuse. Yes, we are becoming more and more dependent upon the “government” to hand us our “daily bread”.
The half truth is the numbers in the article are wrong and artificial. How much are they wrong? By half? By one third? Who knows? Ignore the numbers and the “pattern” makes sense. So, no matter if the end number is $75,000 or $7,500 it is too much, and welfare cheats need to get caught and prosecuted. Those welfare systems that heap largess on the least likely to want to go to work need to change.
Then there is the “no truth at all” in which we believe the US Congress will take any action to fix these issues.
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