The one issue on which Donald Trump hasn't been a total nightmare is social insurance, with his vow to stay hands off of Social Security and Medicare. But his close friend and advisor, Tom Barrack, says that won't last, because Trump is listening to people like him, executive chairman of the private equity firm Colony Capital.
"I want to keep Social Security intact ... I'm not going to cut it, and I'm not going to raise ages ... [T]hey want to cut it very substantially, the Republicans, and I'm not going to do that," Trump said during a radio interview this spring.
But Trump economic adviser and longtime friend Tom Barrack seemed to suggest that stance is driven by politics -- and that, if elected, Trump might change his tune. […]
"He's not making the case [for "reform"] because it's a political suicide to make this case," Barrack said. "If you go up and start saying I'm going to attack Social Security, I'm going to attack Medicaid, I'm going to attack all these [federal] departments—we now have 17% about of the workforce employed by the government. There goes those votes. So no smart politician is going to step into this milieu."
Trump himself acknowledged as much in that spring radio interview, noting that if you propose cutting Social Security "you're going to lose the election. […] [A]t the end of the day, somebody's gotta say you've got to move the retirement age up two years."
You can bet your grandmother's Social Security check that Trump would turn on that dime once he started hearing from his Wall Street buddies.
Can you chip in $3 to keep Donald Trump's hands off our Social Security?