Trump Promises To Save Social Programs

During the campaign, Trump said repeatedly that unlike all the other Republican candidates, he would preserve Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; here's a mashup:



At his blog "The Plum Line" at The Washington Post, in an article entitled "Will Republicans gut Medicare? Trump promised over and over he wouldn’t. Here’s the video." Greg Sargent says:

Note that Trump repeatedly went well out of his way to contrast his own approach with that of the GOP writ large. “Many of these candidates want to cut it,” Trump said of his fellow GOP primary candidates in June of 2015. “Every Republican wants to do a big number” on Medicare, Trump said in April of 2015. All this was an obvious attempt to distinguish himself ideologically from the overall Republican approach to entitlements, which is to say, from Ryanism.

Sargent continues:

But critics have pointed out that Ryan’s proposed changes would fundamentally alter the program’s core mission by ending the Medicare “guarantee,” and would, in fact, “cut” people’s benefits. They argue that Ryan’s “premium support” plan would result in higher costs for seniors over time, as their fixed payment from the government falls behind rising health care costs. They also argue that Republicans overstate Medicare’s fiscal woes, which can be addressed without ending the guarantee or benefits cuts that harm lower-income beneficiaries.

Trump is backtracking on campaign promises left and right. What will he do on this one?