Another example of "Will they never learn?" Even with scandal heaped on scandal and looming cuts to programs for the poor and middle classes; even with shrinking approval ratings, Trump's base remains faithful. Congressional Republicans are now targeting draconian cuts to health care, Medicaid, and social programs for poor children and working parents to kick in in 2019, to avoid angering the Trump base and harming the reelection of Republican representatives. This is  a strategic ploy, but Republicans might not have worried, because, as a character in a recent movie said, "These knuckleheads ain't gettin' the picture!" If program cuts in the pipeline now pass Congress, hundred of thousands of mostly poor will die early, hundreds of thousand of deprived children will have their hope of a decent future life wiped out.

Maybe the relatively compassionate Republicans will hold fast against the Vandal Horde, but maybe Mitch McConnell will have to make cuts deeper to please the far right.