April 22, 2015

By Jim Nowlan
Outside
Columnist

I am invited to give talks to Lions, Rotary, women’s and other clubs, generally about Illinois and, particularly, its budget problems.
In recent talks, during the question period, several listeners have observed that we could save taxpayer money if we took the “undeserving” off the welfare rolls.
Then the audience members illustrated with anecdotes of local cases they “know” of people who are abusing our several welfare programs.
Anecdotes certainly don’t prove a case, but they do illustrate alarming trends in the growth of dependency of Americans on our government.
For example, one audience member, who rented properties, told of a woman, “smart and capable,” with four children, who received substantially more than $2,000 a month in rental payments ($882), food stamps ($775), heating, phone and other benefits.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.