That “Trump kills Meals on Wheels” story didn’t hold up for long

[mystery-ak]

That “Trump kills Meals on Wheels” story didn’t hold up for long
posted at 9:31 am on March 19, 2017 by Jazz Shaw

   

It was the biggest, juiciest story of the week, complete with everything that the mainstream media loves to latch onto. “Trump budget kills Meals on Wheels program!” New jobs would soon be coming available for people willing to push handcarts through towns and cities across the nation, collecting the bodies of starving senior citizens who had fallen victim to the Trump presidency. Heck, I even fell for it myself. After seeing it blasted across social media by so many news outlets it was easy to do. Then came the much less widely reported wrinkle to the story: it wasn’t true.

Walter Olson at National Review did the work that most of the rest of us apparently forgot about and dug into the details. He explains how Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) actually work and why they aren’t as closely tied to Meals on Wheels as the press (or pork barrel loving politicians) would have you believe.

more
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/03/19/that-trump-kills-meals-on-wheels-story-didnt-hold-up-for-long/

[EC]

Donations are up 100 fold, too. $100,000 this week instead of the usual $1000

[Victoria33]

@mystery-ak

I heard the budget guy explain the budget and block grants to states will be less but it is up to the state whether or not to cut back on meals on wheels.  It is the state that determines how much money to give for that.  Shortly after budget guy finished his session with the press, the articles/tweets started that seniors would die due to Trump not giving money for meals on wheels.

Our liberal family member had that all over her Facebook page - pictures of seniors eating food and they were going to die due to Trump taking their food away.

Some people are dumb as stumps.

[Gefn]

my mom is getting meals on wheels since she had her surgery and couldn’t drive to the grocery store. She will be getting them until the middle of April.

I will be getting them when I get home from surgery for about a month until I can drive.

When it’s all over, both mom and I decided we will volunteer for our local one, packing lunches and mom made a substantial donation to help them.

I am grateful for them for my mom , and I will be grateful when I need them for the three weeks when I cannot drive and need help getting food as well.

[Victoria33]

@Freya

A man and his wife who are long time friends of mine, older people, used to carry the meals to seniors.  They had a regular route to deliver this food.  They did that for years until their health deteriorated to the point they had to stop.  It's a good program. 

[geronl]

Why is MoW a government program anyway?

[Victoria33]

Why is MoW a government program anyway?

@geronl

Meals on Wheels isn't a federal program.  The federal government gives block grant money to states to spend as they want.  States have used some of that money for meals on wheels.  The feds are reducing that amount of money to the states, which in my opinion is good.  My guess is this block grant of money was a Democrat production at its beginning.  At any rate, the state can use that grant money any way they want, keep meals on wheels at the level it is now, or reduce it or dump it.  I doubt any state would dump it.

[Emjay]

@mystery-ak

I heard the budget guy explain the budget and block grants to states will be less but it is up to the state whether or not to cut back on meals on wheels.  It is the state that determines how much money to give for that.  Shortly after budget guy finished his session with the press, the articles/tweets started that seniors would die due to Trump not giving money for meals on wheels.

Our liberal family member had that all over her Facebook page - pictures of seniors eating food and they were going to die due to Trump taking their food away.

Some people are dumb as stumps.

My union friend ... well, until he unfriended me ... could not wait to drag out his Republicans want to feed old people cat food story.  He's been using it for years.

[Emjay]

my mom is getting meals on wheels since she had her surgery and couldn’t drive to the grocery store. She will be getting them until the middle of April.

I will be getting them when I get home from surgery for about a month until I can drive.

When it’s all over, both mom and I decided we will volunteer for our local one, packing lunches and mom made a substantial donation to help them.

I am grateful for them for my mom , and I will be grateful when I need them for the three weeks when I cannot drive and need help getting food as well.

So glad you are getting this service when you and mom need it.  I was disabled for several weeks but am lucky enough to have my daughter next door so she did my meals.

[verga]

my mom is getting meals on wheels since she had her surgery and couldn’t drive to the grocery store. She will be getting them until the middle of April.

I will be getting them when I get home from surgery for about a month until I can drive.

When it’s all over, both mom and I decided we will volunteer for our local one, packing lunches and mom made a substantial donation to help them.

I am grateful for them for my mom , and I will be grateful when I need them for the three weeks when I cannot drive and need help getting food as well.

My Aunt has been delivering MoW for about 20 years. The local prison prepares the meals and there is about 50 volunteers that deliver every week. She lives in Western New York and thee folks really count on this when the weather turns crappy. For some of them my Aunt is the only person that will visit them all week.

[Applewood]

My union friend ... well, until he unfriended me ... could not wait to drag out his Republicans want to feed old people cat food story.  He's been using it for years.

Yes, or my favorite -- Republicans are going to wheel Grandma to a cliff and push her over. 

Our socialist Democrat governor has been on TV all week with both stories, plus a few others. Depending on the issue -- the budget, tampering with Obamacare -- Democrats have several stories they can choose from to trot out to fit the occasion. 

It's time to find some new stories.  Unfortunately, at least in my state, there are hundreds, maybe thousands who believe these stories.  I guess that's why the Dems won't come up with anything new.  Why change what has worked well so far?

[Emjay]

Donations are up 100 fold, too. $100,000 this week instead of the usual $1000

That story is still all over Facebook and, apparently, Trump is snatching food out of Grandma's mouth.

[EC]

Find it a little annoying that it takes something like this hysteria to get donations to that level. 

[Gefn]

Donations are up 100 fold, too. $100,000 this week instead of the usual $1000

My mother has been contributing 100 a week for hers. Way more than she should be paying. She says it's a good program and so many seniors can't pay for it and she's blessed she can and has extra.

Hers will expire at the end of March, and she told me tonight she will send the program $100 a month for the rest of her natural life, plus pay for mine for the two weeks I will be getting it. She had to pull some strings for me, since I'm technically too young for the program.

[Applewood]

MOW is a good program.  After my grandmother died, my grandfather, who couldn't even boil water, became a recipient.  He was happy with the meals and I think he enjoyed the daily visits from the volunteers. 

Regardless of how much federal money supports MOW, I still think it's a charity and government should not be financing charities.