In the fall of 1974, The Chicago Tribune anointed Linda Taylor the “welfare queen,” reporting that she received public aid checks and food stamps while driving a Cadillac and planning a Hawaiian vacation. An Illinois bureaucrat declared that Taylor was responsible for “the most massive case of welfare fraud that has ever been perpetrated in the 50 states.” Ronald Reagan then shone a spotlight on Taylor and her crimes, asserting during his 1976 presidential run that she used 80 aliases and that “her tax-free cash income alone has been running $150,000 a year.” In a recording of one campaign event, you can hear the crowd emit a collective gasp when Reagan recites that enormous dollar figure.
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