https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_queen

When this kind of shit has a Wikipedia entry, you don't really have an excuse for not understanding a long-term vilification of the poor in general in the US, used as an excuse for excessive means testing, and gutting social programs in general. More recently, in Florida, where they began a program of drug testing recipients of welfare, they spent more money drug testing people than they saved by kicking people off the program for being caught doing drugs.

The US is, by the numbers, a majority Christian nation. Thus it follows, a large number of those people must be behind these attitudes.