socialmedian: Cadillac Queens: Fear and Loathing over healthcare [Jeff "Peace is our Business" Mowatt]

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Cadillac Queens: Fear and Loathing over healthcare [Jeff "Peace is our Business" Mowatt]

Source: Ecademy: user blogs

Nov 08, 2009

Summary

An expression I heard for the first time last night. Used by a plain speaking journalist to describe the cultivation of fear by opponents to healthcare reform. Wish I could remember her name.

It's white America's fear of being overwhelmed by African American "Cadillac Queens" she said. So I looked it up. Apparently, though not entirely a myth, a story highly embellished by former President Ronald Reagan.

"Over a period of about five years, Reagan told the story of the "Chicago welfare queen" who had 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards, and collected benefits for "four nonexisting deceased husbands," bilking the government out of "over $150,000." The real welfare recipient to whom Reagan referred was actually convicted for using two different aliases to collect $8,000. Reagan continued to use his version of the story even after the press pointed out the actual facts of the case to him. "

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