The Washington Post, March 2nd, 1988
In 1978, Ronald Reagan told a joke about an employee who asks his boss to cut his salary and thus make him eligible for a public housing project-"the one downtown with a pool, sauna and tennis court." The boss agrees, then asks to be invited over for tennis. "Certainly, Sir," the employee says. "I believe the poor should share with the less fortunate." The story was one of many in the future president's repertoire of welfare jokes, which he told with much effect. Truth was beside the point. He sensed-and he himself felt-the widespread rage at welfare abuse. Much of the nation felt ripped off. ...
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