People keep calling Trump a "populist", but the GOP remains committed to the policy of starve the beast: cut taxes for the wealthy, then use deficits as an excuse to cut programs that serve the middle class and poor 1/

The Trump tax cut -- mainly for corporations and the wealthy -- has cut revenues by >1% of GDP. That's significantly more than the cost of the Affordable Care Act, which has insured 20 million people 2/

But who is the beast that's supposed to be starved? Mainly it's older Americans, because that's where the money is. When people like Ryan say "entitlement reform", that basically means cuts to Social Security and Medicare. 3/

Which makes it remarkable that polling shows older people much more favorable to the GOP than younger people; it's often said that Trump's base is working-class whites, but you could also say that it's old whites 4/

One way to read this is that it's about racism/culture: older whites much less socially liberal than younger. But it's also a measure of gullibility: I suspect a lot of Fox-watchers really believe Rs are defending Medicare against D attacks 5/