In Reaganland, the homeless didn’t want homes, the unemployed didn’t want jobs, and, in possibly his nerviest claim, the hungry didn’t want food. “We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night,” Reagan said in 1964. “Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet.” Later, when his image as governor was tarnished by a huge crowd of poor people jostling for free food at a distribution site, he suggested this novel solution to the hunger problem: “It’s just too bad we can’t have an epidemic of botulism.”IX
