Donald Trump understands perfectly that his base, which is disproportionately elderly, passionately opposes cuts in Social Security and Medicare, so entitlement “reform” was always unlikely during his administration. He has strong proponents of entitlement cuts in his government, however, and he showed a willingness to screw over his base during the campaign to repeal Obamacare, so the possibility of “reform” could not be dismissed altogether.
If the GOP had maintained control of the House, you undoubtedly would have seen at least some effort to “reform” Social Security and Medicare in order to respond to yawning deficits both in the programs themselves and in the budget in general. That didn’t happen, and “reform” is now off the table for the next two years. The new GOP plan almost certainly will be to wait until the funding crisis looms, refuse to raise taxes, and force the Democrats to share responsibility for the cuts when the clock runs out.
How can the Democrats respond to this? By reversing at least some of the Trump tax cuts and using some of the funds to fill in the financial holes in the entitlement programs. It’s both a conceptual and a political winner. I will have more on that topic when I discuss the evolving Democratic positions on the welfare state in a few weeks.