Trump Opens Door to Cuts to Medicare and Other Entitlement Programs

President Trump suggested on Wednesday that he would be willing to consider cuts to programs like Medicare to reduce the federal deficit if he wins a second term, reports the New York Times , an apparent shift from his 2016 campaign promise to protect funding for such entitlements. The president made the comments while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Asked if cuts to entitlements would ever be on his plate, Trump answered yes. "At some point they will be," Trump said, before pointing to United States economic growth. "At the right time, we will take a look at that." Trump suggested that curbing spending on Medicare, the government health care program for older adults, was a possibility. "We're going to look," he said. The president has already proposed cuts for some safety-net programs. His last budget proposal called for a total of $1.9 trillion in cost savings from mandatory safety-net programs, like Medicaid and Medicare. It also called for spending $26 billion less on Social Security and other safety net programs. Spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is expected to cost the federal government more than $30 trillion through 2029, according to the Congressional Budget Office.