Republicans backpedal on social security and medicare cuts, fearing backlash from voters.
In all of those cases, Trump was beating up on groups that the GOP base loves to despise: on immigrants, on unions, on unemployed people who rely on public benefits programs, and so on.
If Trump thought that the GOP base wanted cuts to Social Security and to Medicare, it seems clear that in a heartbeat he would pivot and advocate those cuts. But in this instance, Trump appears to understand that the GOP base has no stomach for such cuts, and he is probably right. For Dean Baker, co-founder of the D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, this reflects an ongoing political struggle within the GOP. “The mainstream of the Republican Party had for years pushed for cuts to Medicare and Social Security, and got their asses kicked for it repeatedly,” he told me. “Protecting Social Security and Medicare was [Bill] Clinton’s re-election campaign.
Baker believes that “there are still plenty of traditional Republicans who would like to cut these programs, but they have to go against Trump and his army to make the case. That makes it very hard for them to do, but they are not about to give up.” All of this should make for interesting politics in the next several months. The GOP is tying itself in knots trying to work out a budget proposal that meets the balanced budget requirements set by the party’s hard right, while not touching Social Security and Medicare and not raising any taxes.
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