It begins.
The blood-letting.
Not yet confident enough to wage a full-scale assault on Medicare and Social Security, the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have launched a trial balloon.
The target? Meals on Wheels.
Meals on Wheels is not really a federal program, Republicans argue. So it wouldn’t be obliterated by proposed federal budget cuts.
Money for Meals on Wheels is a mix of state, federal, local funding and private donations.
Supporters of it’s-not-a-federal-program omit mentioning that Meals on Wheels receives federal money from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Trump administration wants to cut that budget by 16 percent.
The other argument flung against Meals on Wheels is that it is a program that doesn’t work.
Which is an odd argument.
In 2016, Meals on Wheels served 219 million meals to 2.4 million senior citizens. Many of those served are veterans.
Recipients of Meals on Wheels are the elderly, the ill, children, persons with mobility problems who are unable to go grocery shopping or to prepare – or afford – healthy meals.
Meals on Wheels brings healthful food to people who might otherwise not receive any.
Receiving meals at home also allows recipients to stay in their home, instead of being institutionalized.
How is this a program that doesn’t work?
Meals on Wheels provides food to millions of Americans in need.
Millions.
If Republicans have better ideas on how to more efficiently provide food to shut-ins, by all means they should pursue them. They have the votes.
But Republicans don’t want to serve more meals to more people in need.
They want Meals on Wheels – and all other government efforts to assist Americans in need – to go away.
Because for them, saving money, spending less, always trumps the health and well-being of Americans.
Paul Sassone is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.
An earlier version of this column incorrectly stated the number of meals served in 2016 by Meals on Wheels.
