Welfare Queen and her Tactics

Linda Taylor was the main subject of many of Ronald Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign speeches regarding welfare, she was the perfect example that he was able to use for his argument against welfare and to all the people who opposed it as well, her actions were living evidence of just how little oversight there was in the program and how easily it could be abused. Reagan believed he was the one who was able to fix it. She was an American criminal who committed extensive welfare fraud and became identified as the ¨Welfare queen¨. She used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, social security, collected veterans benefits for four nonexistent deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare. Her tax-free cash income alone had ran at about $150,000 a year. Her criminal activities were not limited to welfare fraud, they had extended beyond it including assault, theft, insurance fraud, bigamy, the abduction and sale of children, and possible even murder. In the 1970's alone she Taylor was investigated for homicide, kidnapping, and baby trafficking. Welfare fraud was likely the least of the welfare queen's offenses.