The Problem with Welfare Queens

[ludwigb]

http://www.reason.com/0403/fe.js.confessions.shtml

Confessions of a Welfare Queen
How rich bastards like me rip off taxpayers for millions of dollars
John Stossel


Law grinds the poor, and rich men rule the law.

-- Oliver Goldsmith

Ronald Reagan memorably complained about "welfare queens," but he never told us that the biggest welfare queens are the already wealthy. Their lobbyists fawn over politicians, giving them little bits of money -- campaign contributions, plane trips, dinners, golf outings -- in exchange for huge chunks of taxpayers’ money. Millionaires who own your favorite sports teams get subsidies, as do millionaire farmers, corporations, and well-connected plutocrats of every variety. Even successful, wealthy TV journalists.

That’s right, I got some of your money too.

My Life as a Welfare Queen

In 1980 I built a wonderful beach house. Four bedrooms -- every room with a view of the Atlantic Ocean.

It was an absurd place to build, right on the edge of the ocean. All that stood between my house and ruin was a hundred feet of sand. My father told me: "Don’t do it; it’s too risky. No one should build so close to an ocean."

But I built anyway.

Why? As my eager-for-the-business architect said, "Why not? If the ocean destroys your house, the government will pay for a new one."

What? Why would the government do that? Why would it encourage people to build in such risky places? That would be insane.

But the architect was right. If the ocean took my house, Uncle Sam would pay to replace it under the National Flood Insurance Program. Since private insurers weren’t dumb enough to sell cheap insurance to people who built on the edges of oceans or rivers, Congress decided the government should step in and do it. So if the ocean ate what I built, I could rebuild and rebuild again and again -- there was no limit to the number of claims on the same property in the same location -- up to a maximum of $250,000 per house per flood. And you taxpayers would pay for it.

Thanks.....

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. Was Stossel a porn star during the 70s? You decide....

[ludwigb]

2. LOL...

[boobooday]

4. No, John Stossel is STILL a porn star in the 70's

He's caught in a time warp.

haha :-)

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. He has been spotted around town with this man.

[boobooday]

3. And then there are the Corporate Welfare Queens

Who run their companies into the ground, take huge salaries, and then get the government to bail them out.

OR, take huge subsidies from the government, and then pay themselves huge salaries, and then build houses on the beach, and THEN get the taxpayers to rebuild their McMansions when they are washed away.

Sigh.

Time to reverse the class war -- they've been waging it against us for years -- now we must strike back if we are to survive at all.

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[wjittermoss]

6. Why doesn't anyone deal seriously with the issue? Even here at DU

we don't really want to admit who the real bastards are in our society.
It just hits too close to home. This should be a huge story...but it won't be. I remember when Reagan was in office and the scandals involving his friends at HUD. Numerous rich folks got HUD home that were supposed to be for the poor. They made millions and acquired huge homes for themselves. The Reagan administration was the most corrupt administration until this Bush administration came along.

[ludwigb]

7. One of the funniest parts

is where he talks with Gephardt about it and he just smiles blandly. I can totally see that.

I realize that there are a lot of poor people who have sincerely been stupid enough to build houses by the river and get screwed. But this is just too much. In a lot of ways the federal government is simply out of control.

[PA Democrat]

8. The Bush Family includes a few welfare queens

Welfare Queen Jeb Bush along with his Cuban business partner, Armando Codina bought an office building in Florida in 1985 financed through Broward Federal. When this savings and loan failed, the loan was turned over to the federal Resolution Trust Corporation. Jeb and his partner at that point were in default on the loan, but fortunately thanks to Jeb's connections (daddy in the White House), they were able to avoid foreclosure through a payment of a mere $500,000. We taxpayers picked up the balance of Jeb's unpaid loan to the tune of $4.1 million.

Welfare Queen Neil Bush Made more than $200 million in improper loans to business partners Ken Good & Bill Walters during Neil's tenure as director of Silverado S&L. We taxpayers picked up the tab for almost the full $200 million in loans upon which Neil's buddies defaulted.

Welfare Queen George W. Bush as an owner of the Texas Rangers shared in more than $191 million in welfare from the taxpayer-financed new stadium.

Who are the true welfare queens?

[PA Democrat]

9. My Republican In-laws are welfare queens

They just bought a new beach front home with federal insurance money they collected after a hurricane wiped out their former beach front property.

But they would have little compassion for people losing their ONLY home due to outsourcing of their jobs.

"Personal responsibility" is just Republican-speak for "it's OK for me to be greedy at the expense of the less fortunate."

[AP]

10. In CA, for the state insures houses built where they'll certainly burn

down. It's a direct taxpayer subsidy for development, and one which truns out to be very expensive for taxpayers.

It's an example of how gain is privatized and risk/loss is socialized in America. It's a one-way transfer of wealth straight to the top of the pile.

Meanwhile, highschools in working class neighborhoods are closing libraries and terminating sports programs because they don't have the money.