Welfare Cadillac
Published May 3rd, 2008 in UncategorizedWelfare Cadillac is a political phrase used in the United States for an anecdote intended to illustrate a case of a person or group receiving public benefits where the benefits are not actually needed by the recipient or are obtained by fraud.
The imagery is of a person arriving at a welfare office in a Cadillac automobile to pick up a welfare payment. The implication is that the person does not need the benefit, since a Cadillac is an expensive car, that the benefits are so generous that the person can drive a Cadillac while most working people drive cheaper cars, or that the person is “gaming the system” to receive sufficient funds to purchase and keep an expensive car. Secondary is the argument that if the vehicle were acquired honestly, that the person should sell the car before accepting taxpayer funds.
In modern politics, the term describes a story, real or imagined, that is supposed to demonstrate that people are cheating to receive government subsidies or that payments are going to people “who don’t really need them.” An unusual example of a person receiving an apparently unneeded benefit may be used to delegitimize an entire program.
See also
- Welfare queen
- Welfare fraud
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