5
Jan

Facts don’t fit claims of FLDS welfare fraud

Posted by joshuah

Of course the facts don”t fit the claims…it’s called “propaganda”, or if you prefer a more modern phrase, “perception management.”

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

Allegations that members of a southern Utah polygamous sect are guilty of widespread welfare fraud were raised repeatedly this summer during a U.S. Senate judiciary committee hearing.

They surfaced frequently, too, in messages sent to Texas Gov. Rick Perry after an April raid on the Eldorado ranch occupied by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

“Please pull the plug on the freebies for the cult. Why are the taxpayers of your state paying for this illegal group?” wrote a Michigan couple on April 17.

But welfare data from Utah, Arizona and Texas do not support the claims.

None of the 600 or so residents of the Yearning For Zion Ranch received any form of welfare, according to state officials. Cash assistance is almost nonexistent in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

While many families living in the sect’s traditional home base receive food and medical help, virtually all those families qualify under program guidelines, authorities say. There has been a single fraud case prosecuted in the past decade.

Yet six speakers at a July 24 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing — from Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid to former plural wife Carolyn Jessop — said fraud and misuse of welfare funds is a primary reason the federal government should be more involved in investigating the sect.

Reid said the FLDS have a “sophisticated, wealthy and vast criminal organization” that includes “welfare fraud.”

Jessop told the committee the FLDS engage in a “religious doctrine” known as ‘bleeding the beast,’ ” which she explained included applying for “every possible type of government of assistance that is available.” Author Stephen Singular, who has written a book about the FLDS, told the committee that Colorado City residents received “eight times the welfare assistance of comparably sized towns in the area.”

But data from Utah and Arizona officials contradict that claim.

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