Before he became President, Ronald Reagan kept perpetuating a massive lie, far more than Barack Obama and ObamaCare, despite claims that Obama is the most massive liar of any President!
NO, it is a tie between Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, with Reagan simply more charming and charismatic, so Nixon tends to be regarded as the greater liar because of Watergate!
But Reagan lied about Iran-Contra in 1986, claiming he had “no recollection”, and able to get away with it due to his charm, and the thought that, as an aging President, he would be given a pass, although some thought he should be impeached for that scandal, as well as others, making his administration one of the most scandal ridden Presidencies, right behind Nixon, Warren G. Harding, and Ulysses S. Grant.
But even before the scandals of his Presidency, Reagan developed in his mind, and came to believe, that there was a “Welfare Queen”, of course an African American in Chicago, who was collecting dozens of checks monthly, and scamming the “welfare” system.
This was a lie from day one, but it resonated, and was used by conservatives to condemn the poor, implying that they were all too lazy to work, and were just drinking and taking drugs and living off hard working whites.
The fact that most people on “welfare”, meaning food stamps and Medicaid and unemployment compensation are white, are single mothers with children, and many work, but make inadequate income working for minimum wage (such as at Walmart and McDonalds and such places like them), is ignored, and it has become an attack on the poor, as if they wish to be poor, and also provoke working class whites against minorities.
Meanwhile, as the move is on to cut food stamps and unemployment compensation, and in red states deny expansion of Medicaid, and also deny an increase in the minimum wage, the vast majority who are being harmed are white working class people who continue to vote Republican, not understanding that it is them who are being condemned by the term “Welfare Queen”.
The term “Welfare Queen” is a massive lie, and was a massive lie when Ronald Reagan used it to attain the Presidency! Reagan either knew it was a lie, or was too incompetent mentally to know that he was telling a lie that he had convinced himself was the truth. And this is a President to admire and emulate, as a great President, when he set out to harm those who were down and out for his own advancement? Give me a break!