Does popular vote loser Donald Trump know about this? Apparently when he promised in his campaign that he wouldn't cut Social Security and Medicare, when he talked about it as political suicide, he didn't mean it. At least that's what House Speaker Paul Ryan says. Ryan thinks Trump's position is still an "open question."
"From all my conversations with the President, he says 'I don't want to change Medicare benefits for people in or near retirement,' and we agree with that," the Wisconsin Republican told reporters in his Capitol suite Tuesday morning. […]
Ryan has long pushed for reforming Medicare to keep that system solvent, but he also argues strongly changing the big ticket entitlement is the only way to really rein in deficit spending.
"I've been a big time entitlement reformer for a long time because if you don't start bending the curve in the out years, we are hosed," Ryan said bluntly Tuesday morning.
By the way, this is one of Ryan's very favorite lies, one which this CNN story fails to debunk. Medicare isn't facing an insolvency crisis and one of the reasons why is because of Obamacare. But Ryan isn't going to give up on this goal anytime soon, and he clearly believes he's got a president he can hoodwink or arm-twist into doing his will.
That could be because he's got his buddy Mick Mulvaney, who spent most of his congressional career trying to destroy Social Security and Medicare, as Trump's new Office of Management and Budget Director. And Mulvaney is not ruling those cuts out, even though they aren't in the budget Trump is going to unveil in Tuesday night's speech to a joint session of Congress.
Mulvaney said Trump’s first budget blueprint would be released on March 16, outlining basic expenditures for the federal government. A full budget with policy and economic projections, including potential entitlement reforms, would be released in early May.
So by early May, Trump has to decide whether he'll stand behind his promise to voters or let Ryan run the show.