UPDATED 2X: Trump Budget Director Suggests Meals On Wheels Doesn't Show Results
Last edited Fri Mar 17, 2017, 09:40 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: Talking Points Memo
By KRISTIN SALAKY Published MARCH 16, 2017, 4:36 PM EDT
Defending the draconian spending cuts in the first Trump budget, the White House's top budget official suggested Thursday that "Meals on Wheels" isn't "showing any results."
Appearing in front of reporters in the White House briefing room, Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, broadly defended the cuts to most of the $3 billion Community Development Block Grants which [link:http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-budget-2017provides funding to states for Meals on Wheels], among other programs.
Pressed by a reporter specifically on the effect of the cuts on programs like "Meals on Wheels," Mulvaney stressed that the program wasn't a direct federal program but one that states can decide to fund with their federal community development block grants.
"The CDBGs have been identified as programs since the second Bush administration as ones that were just not showing any results. We can't do that anymore," Mulvaney said. "We can't spend money on programs just because they sound good. Great, 'Meals on Wheels' sounds great. That's a state decision to fund that particular portion."
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/states-cut-funding-meals-on-wheels
UPDATE 1:
OMB Director: Trump Will 'Keep The Promises' On Not Touching Entitlements
By MATT SHUHAM Published MARCH 16, 2017, 4:58 PM EDT
The director of the Office of Management and Budget said Thursday that President Trump would absolutely keep his campaign trail promise not to cut entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security in the federal budget.
On the day the Trump administration released its budget blueprint, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters that, though the entitlements werent in what some call the skinny first draft budget, Trump would honor his campaign promise not to touch entitlements.
The President is absolutely going to keep the promises he kept on the campaign trail, Mulvaney said during a White House press briefing. Again, you will see no reference to Social Security here, no reference to Medicare here, no reference to Medicaid here, or any of the other mandatory programs, what some people call entitlement programs, because thats not what this budget is. This is the discretionary part of the budget, half of which, as you know, is defense, and the other half is everything else, the alphabet soup of government. So just because its not here doesnt mean were dodging the issue.
Mulvaney also seemed to signal that the White House was open to negotiation on some of the more unpopular aspects of the budget.
"I've been on the Hill enough to know that some of these would be very unpopular," he said. "Keep in mind, the President is in a unique position."
more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-promise-entitlement-programs
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UPDATE 2:
Meals on Wheels is 'not showing any results' only if you ignore all these results
By Christopher Ingraham March 16 at 5:10 PM
At a news conference Thursday, Mick Mulvaney, President Trumps budget chief, defended proposed cuts to the Meals on Wheels program, which provides food aid to needy senior citizens, by saying the program is one of many that is just not showing any results.
Meals on Wheels is a nonprofit group that receives funding from the federal government, state and local governments and private donors. We serve more than 2.4 million seniors from 60 to 100+ years old each year, [link:https://americaletsdolunch.org/faq/the organization writes]. They are primarily older than 60 and because of physical limitations or financial reasons, have difficulty shopping for or preparing meals for themselves.
If that doesnt clear the bar for results, as Mulvaney put it, theres also been a fair amount of peer-reviewed research on the efficacy of the program.
[link:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24916974A 2013 review of studies], for instance, found that home-delivered meal programs for seniors significantly improve diet quality, increase nutrient intakes, and reduce food insecurity and nutritional risk among participants. Other beneficial outcomes include increased socialization opportunities, improvement in dietary adherence, and higher quality of life.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/16/trump-budget-chief-says-meals-on-wheels-is-not-showing-any-results-hes-wrong/?utm_term.7765b3f00b3d&wpisrcnl_headlines&wpmm1
msongs
(67,393 posts)cstanleytech
(26,280 posts)infrastructure spending as right now our defense budget is greatly exceeding the combined defense spending for the next top 5 defense spenders.
Besides the majority spent on defense finds its way into the pockets of the wealthy with little of it finding its way into the hands of the average person.
Kimchijeon
(1,606 posts)As unlikely as that would be, it would be a wise decision.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,661 posts)how is that "not working"?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)See? It doesn't work.
pat_k
(9,313 posts)Stop feeding them and "demand" goes way down. More "effective" not to feed impoverished shut ins.
NCjack
(10,279 posts)nutrition boost to make them productive in the economy -- like become advanced level computer software experts. Or, Mercedes engine mechanics, so they can maintain the cars of the rich while working for MOWs. Just not happening. Damn, the prisoners of the Nazis were more productive than these MOWs seniors. These meals are not producing anything. SAD.
pat_k
(9,313 posts)... than spend the $2,500 to $3,000 it costs to provide meals for a year.
It costs less to provide meals for a year than one or two days in a hospital.
But, enabling people to stay in the community, or have enough nutrition to stay out of the hospital.... just not effective.
And BTW, fuck the Appalachian regional commission too. Why the hell spend money on economic development or retraining for out of work coal miners? What a waste.
Who needs all these money saving, tax base increasing, programs? Much better to shovel over $50 billion into the military money pit.
These people are fucking insane.
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)more guns is the answer
samplegirl
(11,474 posts)Virtually every safety net being taken right before our eyes! Oh the sadness I can't take it!!!
Kittycow
(2,396 posts)Friend or Foe
(195 posts)Isn't it now about time to slash the budget of Congress. Talk about a program that's not showing any results!
montanacowboy
(6,081 posts)ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)these people receive by having human contact. The Meals on Wheels driver is often the only person they have contact with during the day, which is vitally important to many of the recipients. In addition, having someone look in on usually elderly people can be a life saver. But no, the program "isn't showing any results". ASSHOLES
pat_k
(9,313 posts)... $80,000 a year elder care institutions is a far more "effective" way to transfer any remaining wealth, and then Medicaid dollars, into the privatized elder care industry.
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)marybourg
(12,609 posts)young and frisky again!
grantcart
(53,061 posts)deminks
(11,014 posts)gibraltar72
(7,501 posts)at least. One of the most effective ways to insure seniors and shut ins receive a wholesome meal and are looked in on. Mostly dedicated volunteers man the programs.
pat_k
(9,313 posts)"seed money" that gets more than matched by donated time and money. And it is not just food. The person delivering meals is sometimes the only social contact.
Seems to me that almost all targeted programs and safety nets have a "multiplier effect" of one sort or another that is generally ignored.
diva77
(7,639 posts)Trump is Digging His Own Grave
Literally
By Charlie Gasparino Published July 22, 2015
http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2015/07/22/trump-is-digging-his-own-graveliterally.html
...snip The flamboyant billionaire has received approval to build a private cemetery at the Trump National Golf Club, a swanky 36-hole course located in Bedminster, NJ, the Fox Business Network has learned. A spokesman for Trump Ed Russo confirmed the plans for the private cemetery after Fox Business received information from members who said that ground crews had been taking initial steps to build a mausoleum for Trump on the grounds of the club....snip
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,661 posts)Lanius
(599 posts)And the lower-class rubes thought voting for Drumpf and giving both houses of Congress to the Republicans would make things better for them and their families. lol
Now, how does or doesn't Meals on Wheels show results? Is a lot of food going uneaten? Maybe a better question is what type of "results" would justify programs like Meals on Wheels in Mulvaney's mind? I don't get what he's after.
Ray Bruns
(4,092 posts)You get this. "Meals on Wheels isn't showing results". There you have it folks. The republican mindset. It is not Christian. It is not humanist. Kind of like the terminator. It doesn't feel pity, sympathy, empathy or remorse. It is the cold blooded, money and power hungry sadism.
pat_k
(9,313 posts)... rooted in the American "religious" right "prosperity gospel." That is, the doctrine that god favors the "good" with riches, and therefore, the poor (and even those who are just "not rich" are not "good." They don't deserve "hand outs" from good people. If they would just become good people, god would favor them. Conversely, great wealth is evidence of "goidness" deserving of ever greater wealth.
It is the only a religious doctrine I know of that is completely devoid of compassion. The only one for which the "golden rule" is meaningless.
The properity gospel is one factor driving DT's popularity with the religious right.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/posteverything/wp/2016/07/15/how-the-prosperity-gospel-explains-donald-trumps-popularity-with-christian-voters/
yardwork
(61,588 posts)maxsolomon
(33,284 posts)Now we have to run about justifying food for the elderly.
Raine1967
(11,589 posts)This is disgusting.
onethatcares
(16,165 posts)not showing a profit. Everything is fucking profit with these people.
Words escape me.
Raine1967
(11,589 posts)They only care about APPRECIABLE BENEFICIARY's.
Hugin
(33,112 posts)What? In having absolutely NO MANDATE after a questionable election? Is that what is meant?
klook
(12,154 posts)With the help of a Republican Congress that's willing to sacrifice poor, elderly Americans to make the rich obscenely richer.
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)It's feeding people who would otherwise go hungry, which is exactly its mission.
Mulvaney: "Keep in mind, the President is in a unique position." What the hell does that even mean?
marybourg
(12,609 posts)have go into Medicaid nursing homes. How can that not be a good result?
PatSeg
(47,370 posts)What is his idea of "results"? Hungry seniors + food = ??? The only return for such an investment would be they are not hungry, which was the point for Meals on Wheels.
Vinca
(50,255 posts)old people and the disabled don't get food. WTF is wrong with these people? Tax breaks for the wealthy as a result of starving the poor.
Archae
(46,314 posts)*CLANG*
"Bring out your dead!"
LuckyLib
(6,819 posts)and Congress funds that pork anyway, THAT is the kind of stuff that needs a sharp budget knife.
Go after the vulnerable, Rethugicans, it's what you do.
PsychoBabble
(837 posts)... to shame at least SOME of their colleagues in front of the public.
iluvtennis
(19,844 posts)...have these folks ever even gone to a poor community to see things live and in living color. I don't think so.
tanyev
(42,541 posts)red dog 1
(27,792 posts)(Last sentence of TPM article)
"We're $20 trillion in debt. We can't spend it on programs that did not show results,"
Mulvaney added.
Besides providing federal funding for Meals on Wheels, the Community Development Block Grant program provides funding for targeted projects related to affordable housing, community development and homelessness programs, among other things.
(From the Chicago Tribune, March 15, 2017)
"Trump's First Budget Increases Military Spending At Expense of Federal Programs"
Parts of the budget proposal also appear to contradict Trump's agenda.
Trump said he wants to eliminate all disease, but the budget chops funding for the National Institutes of Health by $5.8 billion, or close to 20 percent.
He said he wants to create a $1 trillion infrastructure program, but the budget proposal would eliminate a Transportation Department program that funds nearly $500 million in road projects.
And the Trump administration proposed to eliminate a number of other programs, particularly those that serve low-income Americans and minorities, because it questioned their effectiveness.
This included the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which disperses more than
$3 billion annually to help heat homes in the winter."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-budget-20170315-story.html
So, low-income disabled persons and seniors who rely on federal funding for programs that help them stay alive, like the Meals on Wheels and Low-income Home Energy Assistance programs, are now shit out of luck because heartless bastards like Trump and Mulvaney have decided that these programs "did not show results"?
In other words, Trump is saying: "Fuck the poor!"
To hell with any program that might help those less fortunate than he is, because those programs "did not show results."
On the other hand, being the puppet of the Military-Industrial Complex that he is, he wants a 10 percent INCREASE in defense spending ($54 billion more)
Fuck Trump!
Fuck Mulvaney!
Fuck Bannon!
Fuck Jared Kushner!
Fuck Ryan!
Fuck McTurtle!
and Fuck James Comey too, because without Comey's October 28, 2016 letter full of lies sent to Congress (A clear violation of the Hatch Act), that orange POS would not be in the White House now!
mainer
(12,022 posts)To kill elderly and get them off Medicare + Social Security dole
Kimchijeon
(1,606 posts)moonscape
(4,673 posts)a Weight Watchers program and the elderly just aren't losing enough weight on it.
ancianita
(36,017 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,515 posts)Nitram
(22,781 posts)Archae
(46,314 posts)*I* get Meals on Wheels, and you damn right there are "results."
I'm eating good meals and better ones than I did for decades!
This Mulvaney clown can kiss my ass!
SticksnStones
(2,108 posts)...so THIS GUY is fine with it being cut from the budget with his name on it ~
"Tone deaf" doesn't even scratch the gilded surface
MFM008
(19,803 posts)Every asshole that voted for this dickless maggot.
Bengus81
(6,931 posts)but someone is knocking on a door and checking on their welfare at the same time. I know to Trump and his ILK this kind of stuff sickens them--they just have jeeves and the staff of cooks making sure their fed.
Hey Trump....FUCK YOU ok????
pfitz59
(10,344 posts)Too crass and classless. Bertie Wooster had a big heart...
Bengus81
(6,931 posts)My Gawd.................
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Bayard
(22,040 posts)He's going to axe Meals on Wheels, the Endowment for the Arts, Pell grants, the Affordable Care Act, and, and, and......
While we're spending $3MM a weekend for him to fly to Florida and play golf. A million dollars a day for his wife and he to live apart. Billions of dollars to build his goddamn wall. Billions of dollars for him to play War Games and start a war with North Korea, and whoever else does not kiss his ring.
Was just listening to some Senator Jerk on Chris Hayes saying Trump going to Florida EVERY weekend is comparable to Obama going to Hawaii---what? A couple times a year? "And I never said anything about THAT".
I must go hurl now. That is all.
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,578 posts)I wish there was a joke in there, but I can't think of one.
IronLionZion
(45,410 posts)Meanwhile, we must give more subsidies and crony deals to job creators so they can create jobs. Think of the elderly who will not see any benefit from those jobs, don't pay taxes because they are old, and will just starve to death to make America great again.
Are you tired of winning yet?
Greensix1
(67 posts)Mulvaney just misspoke. He didn't mean "results", like feeding the poor would make them well-fed. What he meant was "poor people aren't dying fast enough to make Republicans happy".
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,500 posts)Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)exist, much less are in power.
briv1016
(1,570 posts)This program allows these seniors to stay in their homes longer instead of selling to a real estate developer. (Gee, anyone know of a high profile real estate developer in Washington?)