A tax-reform back door to entitlement reform?

So far, the new Trump administration has maintained a consistent position on entitlement reform: no. As Mulvaney rolled out the toplines for the budget in February, he emphasized the distance between the White House and conservatives on Capitol Hill on the issue. House Speaker Paul Ryan insisted that entitlement reform would be necessary to deliver on Trump’s promises to bring the budget into balance, but Sean Spicer told the White House press corps that Trump would “keep his word to the American people.”

So, entitlement reform, as such, is dead for now. But a new trial balloon in the tax-reform debate might open a back door to dealing with Social Security.