2774

My greandparents used the service 30 years ago, but they hated the food and dropped it. My in-laws in another county tried to get it but were turned down. I think that county was pretty budget strapped. I think little things like Meals on Wheels are a terrible thing to cut. Like kids school meals.

2775

They seem to be referencing CNN info… I think:

About 3% of the budget for Meals on Wheels’ national office comes from government grants (84% comes from individual contributions and grants from corporations and foundations), but the national association provides support and representation for a larger network of 5,000 independently operated local groups, Bertolette said.
The local agencies provide the actual meals and services, she said.

The Older Americans Act, as a function of the US Department of Health and Human Services, which is facing the specter of cuts itself, covers 35% of the costs for the visits, safety checks and meals that the local agencies dole out to 2.4 million senior citizens, Bertolette said.

Local agencies rely on Community Development Block Grant funds as well as money from the state-administered Community Services Block Grant to fill in the gaps.

“Each state allocates this funding differently, so it’s difficult to summarize the total impact on the nationwide network,” Bertolette said. “We know for certain that there are Meals on Wheels programs that would lose vital funding if this proposal went through.”

2776

Thanks for the information Nesrie. It would be nice to have a CDBG percentage to put alongside the 35% from HHS, but it seems that it’s complicated. Also, would the meat axe the Trump budget takes to everything but defense actually spare the 35%?

2777

Didn’t Mulvaney confirm that they’re slashing it in his remarks during the press conference though?

2778

According the Kevin Drum it’s a case of selective quoting, though for sure eliminating the $3 billion for CDBGs would have some effect on MOW. I don’t have the time to watch the press conference myself, but it does seem like there was at least some “smushing together” of what he was saying. Which not to say that the budget isn’t mean and heartless, etc.

2779

The White House knows that many states use this money for Meals on Wheels but they are eliminating it anyways. And Mulvaney clarifies that the money simply can’t be given away to fund programs that don’t work, in answer to the MoW question. I guess I’m just not seeing how it’s a misunderstanding.

2780

There’s no way Congress passes a budget stripping away all federal Meals on Wheels funding. As a statement of intent Trump’s budget is pretty awful. No way it actually passes as is though.

2781

I feel like this falls into the no way Trump wins camp that was talked about in Sept and Oct… except he did. You can never over estimate the will of the GOP to screw everything up as long as they get that one thing they want.

2782

My respect for Kevin Drum just went up several notches

2783

Pretty much this. Why would you mention MoW not working, while talking about cuts if you aren’t cutting it?

I mean, I assume Mulvaney isn’t Trump so he doesn’t just randomly start talking about completely unrelated shit for no fucking reason, but I could be wrong. Maybe he also mentioned other random things and his golf handicap while he was up there and I just missed it.

2784

Because of course he does.

2785

I think there are some “Hairy Arms” at play in that budget. They KNOW people love Meals on Wheels and PBS, so while they distract from the EPA and other important cuts (not to belittle MoW) by creating furor over the cuts to the arts and programs for seniors, they fully plan to reinstate the smaller line items to appease people and create a new norm. They just left those cuts in so that they have something easy to compromise on.

2786

Would that be Trump himself coming up with that strategy, since he’s supposed to be the master deal-maker? I think of him as fully incompetent at this point, but maybe he’s shrewd about this kind of thing.

2787

I thought someone here said earlier someone in the Trump admin is a master with dead cats.

2788

He wants to cuts CDBGs. Some states use a small part of the CDBGs to fund a small part of MOW. The feds kick in a much larger part of MOW funding through a separate mechanism. A reporter asked him how can you cut MOW, and he said that (correctly) that this is state decision to fund part of it through CDBGs, but the CDBG program as a whole wasn’t showing results (I’m sure this part is disputable).

2789

He has enough seasoned politicians around him that routinely hairy arm bill proposals that I’m sure somebody could have suggested it.

2790

My bad, I probably did then. Cheers.

2791

As several thousand of Trump’s supporters converged in the historic Municipal Auditorium on Wednesday, more than 2,500 protesters gathered outside. They urged their fellow Tennesseans to not trust the president’s vague promises and to study the Congressional Budget Office’s score of the bill, which estimates 24 million fewer people will have health insurance coverage by 2026 and that Medicaid would be cut by $880 billion over 10 years.

2792

Yep. Trump is 90% Republican (but the extra special 10% infantile insane sauce is the gift 60 million fwdfwdfwdMuricans gave the rest of the world.)

But because there’s no ending to ‘conservative’ virtue evil:

2793

They’re already buying the crap about how the federal government only provided 2% of that program.
They’ll believe anything.