
Anyone could have seen it coming a mile off - Donald Trump’s first budget outline was never going to be particularly popular.
It turns out Trump wants to slash all funding for Meals on Wheels, the service that delivers meals to elderly people living alone.
Around 34 per cent of its funding comes from the government.
Yahoo reports that Mick Mulvaney, Office of Management and Budget director, said during a press briefing:
We can’t spend money on programmes just because they sound good. Meals on Wheels sounds great … but to take the federal money and give it to the states and say, look, we want to give you money for programs that don’t work — I can’t defend that anymore. We’re going to spend money, we’re going to spend a lot of money, but we’re not going to spend it on programmes that cannot show that they actually deliver the promises that we’ve made to people.
But an analysis of eight studies found that six of them concluded that the service “significantly” improved diet quality and nutrition, as well as offering more opportunities for recipients to socialise, and have a higher quality of life.
And:
#MealsonWheels is a proven public-private partnership that effectively meets seniors' needs.… https://t.co/0wgyGLlJgg— Meals on Wheels (@Meals on Wheels) 1489700953
But the silver lining: the service received 50 times more donations than usual in one single day (eg, an increase of 5,000 per cent), as well as a flood of people wanting to volunteer, according to Yahoo.
Here's one recipient responding to the news:
.@VanJones68 talks with Meals on Wheels recipient: "Try to put yourself in my situation... how else would I eat?" https://t.co/bd7KuwNaxU— CNN (@CNN) 1489713425
People also took to Twitter to show their support:
Sad commentary from an ignorant, privileged man child who has no idea what being poor is like. Seniors depend on this. #MealsOnWheels— Sugar - BIDEN is my PRESIDENT! (@Sugar - BIDEN is my PRESIDENT!) 1489674196
Took this pic 4 years ago when I was running a #MealsonWheels, or as Trump would describe it, wasting money that co… https://t.co/AifFUoJPjK— Jamiles Lartey (@Jamiles Lartey) 1489693392
When drain the swamp means cutting #MealsonWheels you know #DonaldTrump is a President of sound bites and obscene corrupting entitlement.— John Smith (son of Harry Leslie Smith) (@John Smith (son of Harry Leslie Smith)) 1489771671
They also pointed out the irony of a very rich man cutting the funding for a service that helps poor people eat.
Defunding Meals on Wheels while the grifters eat steak on the dime of ordinary American taxpayers. Patriotism!… https://t.co/DI3m7RzmbD— J Braunstein 🇺🇸 (@J Braunstein 🇺🇸) 1489755291
The people in the first three photos want to take that basket of food away from the woman in the last photo. #… https://t.co/keb2nA3Jms— liberal blue (@liberal blue) 1489689075
A similar thing happened late last year, when donations to Planned Parenthood flooded in after Mike Pence threatened that service.