Keller @ Large: Proposed Meals On Wheels Cut Is Disgusting

BOSTON (CBS) - It's a relatively minor detail in the grand scheme of the Trump budget proposal, the $3 billion cut in funding for Community Development Block Grants that could take away about three-and-a-half percent of the budget for Meals on Wheels.

But it speaks volumes about the thought process of the new administration, or rather, the lack of one.

The truth is, even in the unlikely event that this budget cut makes it through the legislative process, it won't mean the end of Meals on Wheels, the program that provides thousands of mainly poor or isolated seniors with food and human contact they would otherwise go without. However, it will hamper their ability to meet the ever-growing demand for these services.

Any decent human being who understands the extent of this need and grasps the poignancy of the image of lonely, hungry seniors would have either avoided this budget cut, or tried to explain it in compassionate terms.

Instead, White House budget czar Mick Mulvaney lectured the press Thursday about how Meals on Wheels somehow doesn't "deliver" on its "promises," and how cutting it is actually "one of the most compassionate things we can do" because it puts money back in the pockets of taxpayers.

No, I'm not making this up.

Let me explain something to Mulvaney and anyone else who thought this cut was a good idea – we have a profound moral obligation to help our frail, vulnerable elderly in any way we can.

They did it for us, now we have to step up and do it for them.

That is non-negotiable.

And for the Trump administration to claim otherwise is just about the most disgusting, politically-suicidal thing I have ever seen.

Listen to Jon's commentary: