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/ https://t.co/MPkmLQuWnf
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/
If GOP holds the House, they're going to get a very rude awakening. 6/

More from All

1. Mini Thread on Conflicts of Interest involving the authors of the Nature Toilet Paper:
https://t.co/VUYbsKGncx
Kristian G. Andersen
Andrew Rambaut
Ian Lipkin
Edward C. Holmes
Robert F. Garry

2. Thanks to @newboxer007 for forwarding the link to the research by an Australian in Taiwan (not on

3. K.Andersen didn't mention "competing interests"
Only Garry listed Zalgen Labs, which we will look at later.
In acknowledgements, Michael Farzan, Wellcome Trust, NIH, ERC & ARC are mentioned.
Author affiliations listed as usual.
Note the 328 Citations!
https://t.co/nmOeohM89Q


4. Kristian Andersen (1)
Andersen worked with USAMRIID & Fort Detrick scientists on research, with Robert Garry, Jens Kuhn & Sina Bavari among


5. Kristian Andersen (2)
Works at Scripps Research Institute, which WAS in serious financial trouble, haemorrhaging 20 million $ a year.
But just when the first virus cases were emerging, they received great news.
They issued a press release dated November 27, 2019:

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