More compassionate conservatism:
White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters at a press conference Thursday that Meals on Wheels “sounds great.” But he said that along with other anti-poverty programs, it is “not showing any results.”
“We can’t spend money on programs just because they sound good,” Mulvaney told reporters. “We’re not going to spend money on programs that cannot show that they actually deliver the promises that we’ve made to people.”
Trump’s budget would strip $3 billion from the Community Development Block Grant program, which supports a variety of community-development and anti-poverty programs. Those include Meals on Wheels, which provided 219 million meals to 2.4 million seniors in 2016.
CNN reporter Jim Acosta asked Mulvaney if the funding cuts were “hard-hearted.” Mulvaney responded that reducing government spending on ineffective programs is “probably one of the most compassionate things we can do.”
There’s a post being shared all over social media saying that it’s costing taxpayers $183 million/year to provide security for Melania Trump and little Barron so they can live in New York City. I checked; according to Snopes, it’s probably closer to $50 million/year. Still, $50 million is a lot of money.
Trump’s weekend visits to Mar-a-Lago cost taxpayers $3 million a pop, Politico says. Since the inauguration, that’s been five weekends. For argument’s sake let’s say he will make 40 trips to Mar-a-Lago this year. That’s $120 million.
McClatchy reported that in eight years of the Obama Administration, the nation paid a total of $85 million for presidential family vacations.
And the adult Trump children are getting security, too. For example,
When the president-elect’s son Eric Trump jetted to Uruguay in early January for a Trump Organization promotional trip, U.S. taxpayers were left footing a bill of nearly $100,000 in hotel rooms for Secret Service and embassy staff.
It wasn’t a vacation, but it wasn’t government business, either. And I still want to know how embassy staff got mixed up in Eric’s business trip.
But I say that if we’re going to be so compassionate as to stop providing meals to elderly shut-ins, we ought to do the Trumps a favor and put them on a budget for vacation travel and non-White House residence expenses. Â And we’ll be at least as generous to Trump as the nation was to Obama. So $85 million divided by eight is $10,625,000 a year for Trump to vacation and Melania to live anywhere she wants. Since the Obamas sometimes took other vacations (such as the famous “date night,” I’d be willing to round that up to $11 million to make it even.
Back to Mr. Mulvaney,
“You’re only focusing on half of the equation, right? You’re only focusing on recipients of the money,” Mulvaney said. “We’re trying to focus on both the recipients of the money and the folks who give us the money in the first place. I think it’s fairly compassionate to go to them and say, ‘Look, we’re not going to ask you for your hard-earned money anymore.'”
I appreciate what you say, Mr. Mulvaney, and I want you to know that I resent the hell out of being asked to pay taxes so that the president can pop down to his Florida resort every weekend. The closest thing I’ve had to a vacation for the past several years was the family reunion in Moline, Illinois last summer.
Of course, I don’t have the stresses that a president has. But if the POTUS were to agree to spend his weekends at Camp David — which I understand is perfectly nice — instead of Mar-a-Lago I’d be happy to give him some de-stressing meditation tips. It’s got a golf tees/greens area and a swimming pool. They’ve got marines guarding the place all the time, anyway, so it’s not that much of an additional expense.
Trump could still go to Mar-a-Lago whenever he wanted, but once his annual budget is used up he would have to pay the expenses out of his own pocket. Likewise Melania and Barron might have to move into the White House. But, y’know, there are people who have it worse.
First off, this budget isn’t t-RUMPLE-THin-Skin’s.
He never lived by any budget. And any budgeting in Dumpter’s businesses, well, he left that budgeting to other people. Ane he fired people if they didn’t meet the budget limits they said they would.
This budget is the long-awaited, long-postponed, wet-dream budget of Congressional Republicans and conservative Drink (sic) Tanks. They’ve dreamed of a budget that cuts aid to everyone who’s not wealthy for… well, forever!
As for what we tax payers have to spend for t-RUMPLE-Thin-Skin’s security, his families security, and their assorted vacations and business trips, well, conservatives bitched long and loud about Obama’s and his families, so, I agree – hold t-RUMPLE-Thin-Skin and his evil brood to the same budget.
I hope that Congressional Democrats stick together, and fight for all of us. They may lose, but they’d better put-up a fucking fignt!
If the don’t, then we are truly lost.
The death certificate and burial will have to wait – but, it’ll be a reality, without a real fight.
I’d rather go down swinging, than accomodating…
Meals on Wheels delivered meals to my mom starting in 1975, and now she is no longer with us. See what he means? Point, set, and match, Mick Mulvaney.
Lonely and impoverished with no one to care…the perfect ending to the American dream.
I don’t want my tax dollars to go to the war machine; but, I have always been told that I cannot choose where my taxes go or don’t go. One other cut in the budget is going to hurt many, many people I know. The list I saw showed Trump’s budget is cutting the LIHEAP 100 percent. That is the low income heating and something program. I have many friends who are part of that program in the winter. If they didn’t get help from that program, they would be freezing this winter. How compassionate is that?
Apart from Trump’s expensive weekend jaunts and keeping his wife in the golden tower, I am so looking forward to the public reaction to these heartless cuts. It’s absolutely stupid politically – these programs are tiny in terms of cost, and huge in terms of public outrage.
And that dolt Mulvaney reveals himself and the whole gang for the moral midgets they are when he turns what is “compassionate” on its head.
Put the wastrel on a budget?
I SECOND THE MOTION!
Meanwhile, how Scroogian of Mr. Mulvaney. Are there no poorhouses? Does starvation not reduce the surplus population? He should grow a long black mustache to twirl, and practice on his bwa-ha-ha.
Of course it is the hypocrisy that stands out. This cabinet mostly got rich screwing other people and have never known need. Jerking up the cost of health ins voucherizing medicare, no MOW or LIHEAP, message is just die and get out of the way. Wanting to increase military spending to brag they did with no policy or military objectives in mind , makes it even worse. Sonny Purdue finally submitted his paperwork to be considered for agriculture secretary. So here lets do away with all those pesky regulations and here’s some e. coli chicken.
You do realize that Mar-A-Lago is a Trump property?
http://www.trump.com/real-estate-portfolio/florida/trump-mar-a-lago/
He goes there because his business makes money. He gets nothing if he goes to Camp David.
“You do realize that Mar-A-Lago is a Trump property?”
Yes, everybody knows that.
You know, on one level I can almost catch myself feeling sorry for folks like Spicer and Mulvaney: they’re just doing their job, and it can’t be easy.
Almost.
Then I remind myself that these assholes could easily walk away and still be rich because hell, $50,000/hr on the wingnut lecture circuit and maybe toss in a book deal. So no, these assholes made A CHOICE and the Republican Party is ALL ABOUT PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY so fuck them both.
Double fuck Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and pretty much everyone in Trump’s inner circle who isn’t considering suicide each morning and as for Trump hisself, that orange’otan buffoon deserves all the hatred coming his way.
Then you realize all his stays there are for the single purpose of making money. We, the taxpayers, are filling his bank account and he’s getting away with it. I would like to think there is something illegal with that scenario. Playing the double-standard argument is pointless. It didn’t matter when it was pointed out Bush or Reagan took so much time off. Pointing out that he’s picking his voters pockets might get traction, but so many of them are brainwashed into thinking he’s here to save them, Im not sure they would care even if they knew that to be true.
Unless Congress makes a rule dealing with this, it just becomes another hypocrisy that is ignored by the right.
There is not only something illegal with that scenario, it’s so illegal it’s actually unconstitutional. The problem with that is that Congress is in charge of calling him on that, and they’re aren’t likely to do anything until they hit whatever they think is their sweet spot. Basically, if they impeach Trump they lose a rabid base, but if they don’t distance themselves from him (a lot) they’re likely to lose in the midterms. The Republicans in congress are going to be squabbling over this, and fearful of making a disastrous decision or disastrous timing.
The donald’s related-party transactions aside, that bit about letting taxpayers off the hook seems a bit of a cheek since everything seems to be leaning toward giving the richest the tax breaks, and I don’t mind paying taxes for Meals on Wheels, PBS, and baby formula for low income infants.