The Wonder of Welfare Fraud

I had to laugh upon seeing the front page of the April 1 Times. There was the headline, “O.C. Study Finds Welfare Fraud in 45% of Cases.” Juxtaposed four columns over was the picture of Robert Citron with its accompanying headline, “Skimming Scheme Was Raabe’s, Citron Testifies.”

My laughter was prompted by a story during the Watergate investigation of U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin’s committee in 1973. I, a Texas native, was away in graduate school but in frequent contact with a close lawyer-friend in Austin. Almost daily, we were nonplused by the breaking revelations during the testimonies. Finally, when it was evident that there was no shock left, my friend said to me, “What the rest of the country doesn’t know, of course, is that we [i.e., Texans] taught ‘em [i.e., the Watergate figures] how to do it.” This was in reference to Texas politics.

Whatever welfare fraud there be, we Orange Countians surely “taught ‘em how to do it.”

CECIL LOTIEF

Irvine

* It was front-page news. What else is new? I have seen well-dressed people buying the best cut of meat with food stamps.

There might be a fraud, but I thought it had to be just a small fraction. “My tax dollar at work,” I consoled myself. Why I work my butt off and pay taxes through my nose? There was a resentment.

“We have more important things to do,” politicians (including the President) would reply if you try to bring it to their attention. We have many trivial things that we have no desire to solve. Fraud will continue as long as people can get away with murder. The system was originally set up with good intentions, but some would continue to misuse and abuse the system.

There are endless fraud stories. We have no will to solve the problems, because they are too trivial. A castle collapses from small crevices. History also showed every dynasty and empire lasts about 300 years. Will history repeat?

P. SHEA

Irvine