Insights from “The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth”
The specter of the Welfare Queen has possessed conversation around social services since the 1970s. It’s what empowered Reagan to gut welfare, kicking a million people off of the Food Stamp program. It’s one of the reasons why the general public speaks of fraud when vilifying recipients of public benefits. It’s what informs the stigmatization of SNAP today, discouraging millions of households in need from applying.
In his investigative book “The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth,” Josh Levin hunts down the origins of the Welfare Queen through winding roads of paperwork and up steep hills of first-hand accounts. His findings are haunting. Here are a couple insights from the book:
- The myth of the Welfare Queen is based on a solitary career scammer named, at one point, Linda Taylor. Taylor’s schemes ranged from false burglary reports to theft to identity fraud using over six different names and Social Security numbers. She was also investigated for kidnapping, child trafficking and murder. Welfare fraud was a small fraction of her countless crimes.
- The term “welfare queen” was coined by the Chicago Tribune when reporting on Linda Taylor, though Ronald Reagan is credited with its entrance into mainstream politics. Reagan first utilized the story of Linda Taylor, never mentioning her name, to continue waging his war on government welfare programs. His story about how much she was able to fraudulently get from the government changed throughout the years, starting at $150,000/year and ballooned to $1 million. Ultimately, according to court documents, she was charged with fraudulently receiving $8,000 from welfare programs over the course of her life-time.
It is imperative to mention that, according to a CBPP report, “SNAP fraud is rare, according to all available data and reports.” The report also discusses the myriad of ways SNAP benefits recipients. For example, SNAP is associated with improved current and long-term health, reduced healthcare costs, and keeps millions out of poverty (SNAP kept 8.4 million people out of poverty in 2015, including 3.8 million children).
If you’d like to learn more about The Queen, you can listen to Levin’s podcast, read his Slate article about this story, or buy his book.
