False framing of welfare recipients to get people to oppose these programs is not new. There weren't many welfare queens either, yet they held an outsized position in people's understanding of who was receiving benefits.

You can see this in JD Vance's book for example. He argues that the cause of misery in Appalachia is that people are too lazy to work and being on the dole creates a cycle of poverty. He concludes this from like two anecdotes and then argues that we can fix Appalachian poverty by cutting welfare programs.

1) I would think that having grown up with a crackhead mom that JD Vance would know what it's like to live in poverty and have poverty surrounding you.

2) Have you ever looked up what dollar value is of a family that receives welfare? Its around $80k when you account for food, healthcare, rent controls, child care, cell phone plans and the many many other benefits that are present In the modern system. Do you really think that someone who lives on that is going to risk losing part or maybe all of their welfare benefits if they go to start working a minimum wage job that will make them maybe $40k a year?