M, he campaigned on a promise to help everyday people by bringing back jobs, not by increasing benefits. (He did promise not to cut Medicare, but I don’t think he said anything about Medicaid.) People shouldn’t be too surprised, because for the last few decades, whenever Republicans get elected, their #1 priority always seems to be to cut benefits to the poor (and increase military spending.)
Interestingly, in Israel you don’t have to choose between a socially-conservative and economically-stingy party and a socially-liberal and economically-generous party, as we do here. Instead, all the religious parties (UTJ, Shas, Bayit haYehudi) are socially-conservative and economically-generous. (They’re not necessarily for a socialist welfare state, but they’re generally in favor of increasing benefits rather than cutting them.)