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To: portage who wrote (62411)	1/28/2001 1:04:30 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Reagan's welfare queen anecdotes were effective because there was an element of truth - some people really did abuse the system. Everytime government money is being handed out, someone is going to try a scam, it's not just welfare recipients, take a look at doctors scamming Medicare, and defense contractors scamming the Department of Defense. Scam artists make it harder on everyone, but some places are worse than others in getting rid of the bad guys - Chicago, for example.

To: portage who wrote (62411)	1/28/2001 1:18:11 PM
From: Lee Lichterman III	Respond to of 436258

>>Reagan's welfare queen in the Cadillac anecdote).<< Hey, I have seen plenty of those!!! He got a hard time about that but I guess those making fun of it were never in the inner cities in the 70s and early 80s. I grew up in St. Louis in a nice north side suburb but in the inner city and along Jennings, Normandy etc ( suburbs of mostly poor minorities), there was a HUGE unemployment rate as the GM, Ford and Chrysler plants were laying off heavily, McDonnell Douglas had laid off etc. We drove an old Ford Falcon and a Chevy Nova yet when you went downtown, the minorities were decked out in fancy Sunday church cloths and were all driving Cadillacs. My father was working making good money and they were collecting welfare. Apparently the game plan was to get a loan, get the car, then move constantly without paying rent or car payments but since you were never in one spot long, the repo man couldn't find you. When I turned 18, I almost started doing repos but my Dad threatened to kick my rear since he didn't want me shot in one of those places in the middle of the night. <g> The job paid well and I figured it was a cinch to do since I already knew how to hotwire a car and back then, the car alarms could be disabled easily ( old technology). I figured I would just grab them all and then figure out which one belonged to what bank later. <gggggggggggg> Good Luck, Lee

To: portage who wrote (62411)	1/28/2001 3:30:42 PM
From: flatsville	Respond to of 436258

And speaking of irony: It's the stories that people remember though (I still remember Reagan's welfare queen in the Cadillac anecdote). As well as the stories they don't remember. IIRC during Reagan's tenure as governor CA Medicaid funding for abortion increased steadily with his blessing for the following reasons: Reagan supporters pointed to welfare reform as the capstone of his governorship. Changes in the welfare system were the highlight of his second term after he had been reelected over state Assembly leader Jesse Unruh, the Democratic candidate, in 1970. In 1961 about 620,000 people were receiving welfare benefits in California; by 1971, the figure had grown to 2.4 million--or one out of every nine people in the state. Alarmed at the rapid escalation of welfare costs, Reagan proposed a 70-point welfare and Medi-Cal reform package--the latter a more liberal version of the federal Medicaid program. After a long conflict with the Democratic general assembly, he and that body reached a compromise that accomplished Reagan's major goal. The caseload of welfare recipients dropped, while the benefits for those who remained eligible increased by more than 40%. Reagan's critics contended that his approach to welfare reform reduced benefits to the needy as well as to welfare cheaters. members.aol.com One of those points was a significant increase in Medi-Cal abortion funding...much more generous than the federal program. They also conveniently forget that Reagan, acting six years before the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortions in America, puts his signature on the Therapeutic Abortion Act to permit a woman to have an abortion in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy if a physicians' committee finds her life or health is threatened, or if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. It wasn't until he sought the presidency (and the support of the religious right) that his policy towards abortion changed. Ironic, ain't it?