Too often I’m reading stories that are either disturbing or infuriating. A lot make me angry or have me scratching my head because I just don’t get it. Well, two stories this week put a smile on my face.
I first heard about Amanda Clayton, the Michigan $1 million lottery winner, on The O’Reilly Factor who continued to receive food stamps and thinks she’s entitled because she didn’t have any income.
Smile #1: When the State’s Department of Human Services found out about it, they took her off the program.
Smile #2 this week came after I read that a couple in nearby Kent (south of Seattle) was sentenced to two years in prison after a 20-year welfare fraud scheme was discovered. These two began their Social Security fraud in 1990 when he posed as a mentally disabled person who couldn’t work or drive even though he ran a business buying and selling RVs. She claimed to be his caregiver and was paid by the State Department of Social and Health Services. They were also ordered to pay more than $315,000 in restitution.
The irony of it all is that we, the taxpayers, are still going to provide for these two criminals and probably more than before. For the next two years, we’re now paying going to pay for their housing, clothing, food, cable, electricity, water, heating, cable television, computer access, library, laundry …. I better stop thinking about it because my smile is starting to fade.
