Book: Ayn Rand Was a Welfare Queen | The Nattering Nabobs – Rand, who passed away in 1982, has been enjoying something of a rebirth in recent years as conservative and libertarian politicians in the United States point to her work as a model for their vision of America. Paul Ryan, the vice presidential candidate who ran with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012, has cited Rand as a key influence in his beliefs, as has Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the son of former libertarian hero Ron Paul, who is widely believed to be looking at a 2016 presidential run.
47422005@N04/5425907494But according to Branden, who along with her husband Nathaniel was one of Rand’s most intimate associates in the 1950s and 1960s, Rand was scarcely the free-market purist she claimed to be. Instead, she met several times with the U.S. Department of Justice to try to persuade officials to crack down on what she called “fabricated philosophies designed only to ruin the success of my books.”
All of these attempts failed, however, as Justice officials repeatedly refused to go after authors whose books Rand cited as trying to stem free competition, according to Branden.
Rand also freely tapped federal rental subsidies, called Sec. 8, to help cover her costs while she rented an apartment in New York City while writing her first landmark work, The Fountainhead. “Through an entity that her husband controlled, Rand applied for and received thousands of dollars in rental assistance to reduce the costs of her living in New York City,” the book says.
What’s more, Rand used the same system for obtaining and using food stamps to lower her grocery bills each month. “The bottom line is, she was a cheap, manipulative conniver who used to always say things were better in the U.S.S.R. and how much she missed those bread lines that used to snake around the block when she was a little girl. Of course, that didn’t jive with her self-styled image as a free-market guru, so only those of us closest to her saw that side of her personality,” said Branden.
Modern AfroIndio Times 
Just like her present day acolytes in other words. I know a guy collecting both a city and a military pension, and pretty soon he’ll have an ss check as well, but he swears by Atlas Shrugged and Ryanomics. Go figure.