In 2014, California voters overwhelming voted in favor of a new law reducing the criminal penalties for theft, raising the bar for grand larceny from $400 to $950 and making it difficult, if not nearly impossible, to prosecute many robbery suspects.
And it went about how you’d expect.
Ten years later, the state was forced to reverse course and implement new laws seeking to crack down on the not-so-shocking rise in theft, which had led many California businesses to relocate or even close up shop altogether due to an increase in petty shoplifting, smash-and-grabs, and flash mob-style robberies across many blue cities.
But it seems some criminal-loving Democrats simply refuse to learn from history. Now, one liberal politician is aiming to reduce criminal penalties for a different category of thief - this time, putting taxpayers on the hook.
California state Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas has introduced a bill that would eliminate criminal penalties for anyone convicted of welfare fraud, provided they stole less than $25,000 in taxpayer-funded benefits.
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According to Senate Bill 560’s description on the California legislature’s website, the bill, if passed and signed into law, “would delete the provision that establishes criminal penalties for an attempt to commit welfare fraud,” and would also “delete criminal penalties for welfare fraud when the total amount of aid obtained or retained is above or below $950, and instead make welfare fraud when aid was obtained or retained in the total amount of $25,000 or more punishable by specified imprisonment in a county jail, by a fine, or by imprisonment and fine.”
Translation: you can’t be slapped with criminal penalties simply for trying to obtain welfare by fraudulent means, and you can’t be prosecuted as a criminal if you manage to get your hands on benefits under the amount of $25,000.
Smallwood-Cuevas claims her bill aims to stop the state from “criminalizing poverty.”
"California’s safety net should lift families up, not trap them in poverty," Smallwood-Cuevas told Fox News Digital. "Right now, a missed deadline or paperwork mistake can lead to felony charges that tear families apart — even when there’s no intent to deceive.”
Except unintentional flubs and “missed deadlines” are not what makes up the bulk of welfare fraud.
According to Fox News, which cited the California Department of Social Services, “Most welfare fraud occurs when the reported absent parent is actually living in the home, unreported income, using an ineligible child or children not living in the home who are part of the recipient's case.” Of the 5,000 to 8,000 cases of welfare fraud found annually in the state, only about 200 cases end up being sent to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office; of those, 95% result in a conviction.
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