so if the gop wants to shrink government while preserving entitlements for its base, they have to look at programs that aren't associated with that base like voting to slash food stamps by $40 billion over 10 years, embracing the sequester which cut money from government housing programs, now they're even railing against the free school lunch program. because republicans need to squeeze those programs so their base has as much money as it needs. >> joining me now, msnbc senior political analyst david axelrod, current director of the university of chicago politics. this hustle has been run since 2010 and it drives me nuts that no one seems to pick up on it. i imagine you and the people around you in the white house and in the democratic party over the last four years have been seeing exactly what they've been doing? >> yeah, well, in fact, you know, mitt romney tried to run that at the president in 2012 and we were able to push back on