Last week, the Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton unveiled new research offering a bleak portrait of Mr. Trump’s base of white men<br />and women without a bachelor’s degree: They are, indeed, dying in droves, committing suicide and poisoning themselves with drugs and alcohol at much higher rates than blacks, Hispanics, or men and women in other advanced countries.<br />These include: “an increase in the rate of male mortality from risky<br />and unhealthful behaviors; a reduction in the net availability of marriage-age males in affected labor markets; a reduction in the fraction of young adults entering marriage; a fall in fertility accompanied by a rise in the fraction of births to teen and unmarried mothers; and a sharp jump in the fraction of children living in impoverished and, to a lesser degree, single-headed households.”<br />Can Mr. Trump do anything for these people?<br />It’s also hard to fathom how whites without a college degree would benefit from Mr. Trump’s proposal to cut $54 billion from the civilian discretionary budget — slashing projects to<br />help low-income families pay for heating in the winter or move to better neighborhoods; cutting nutrition assistance for mothers and help for low-income students to enter college.<br />President Trump cannot possibly believe that nixing the health insurance of 24 million poor or nearly poor Americans<br />to pay for tax cuts at the very top of the income distribution would serve the white Everyman he promised to defend.
