Since the release of President Trump’s budget on Thursday, the usual talking points and left vs. right political fights have flourished, with an extraordinary national emphasis on the proposal to cut funding for Meals on Wheels.

Misinformation and misunderstandings have dominated over the past few days but it’s especially cringe-worthy when the Trump administration’s budget director spreads inaccuracies on national television.

In an appearance this morning on NBC’s Meet The Press, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney defended the plan to sharply reduce social services programs by claiming that the proposed cut amounts to only 3 percent of Meals on Wheels funding. This miscue previously made the rounds on social media.

Keith Ellison, a liberal Democratic congressman from Minnesota, sparked the issue by asserting in a tweet that Trump wanted to eliminate Meals on Wheels, a service that feeds nearly 2.5 million seniors nationwide. Numerous media outlets latched on and offered a similar portrayal.

The counter argument that says only 3 percent is at stake surfaced in a column by Forbes magazine under this provocative headline: “Liberals: Stop saying that Trump will kill all Meals on Wheels.”

It turns out that the 3 percent refers to the share of federal funding (for research and technical support) in the annual budget of Meals on Wheels America, a nonprofit association that advocates for the 5,000 locally based Meals on Wheels programs across the nation. Just as the Farm Bureau doesn’t grow crops, Meals on Wheels America does not deliver food.

The lack of good information got so bad that the association on Friday released a statement:

Some sources are citing Meals on Wheels America’s annual budget. Meals on Wheels America is a membership association representing and supporting Meals on Wheels programs across the country. It is not a governing body and it does not deliver meals to seniors or distribute federal funding to local Meals on Wheels programs. It speaks out on behalf of these programs, advocates for our country’s most vulnerable seniors and invests in initiatives to advance the nationwide mission. 3% of Meals on Wheels America’s annual budget comes from the federal government to host a resource center on nutrition and aging.

The “35% of funding that comes from the Older American Act Nutrition Program” figure is in regard to the 5,000 Meals on Wheels programs across the country that could be effected if that 17.9% cut to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services resulted in a cut to programs within. Meals on Wheels programs would also be affected by cuts to the Community Service Block Grant, Community Development Block Grant or the Social Services Block Grant because some states choose to use those funds to support their Meals on Wheels programs above and beyond the 35% covered by the Older Americans Act. Programs rely on contributions from state, local, private donations and other resources to cover the rest, making it a very successful public-private partnership.

As was pointed out by Forbes, in two substantial clarifications tacked onto the original piece published on Thursday, federal funding for Meals on Wheels derives from the Older Americans Act, the Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), and Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP).

At this point, no one knows for sure how significantly Meals on Wheels would be impacted by the Trump budget. That’s because local food service directors cobble together their budgets in a variety of ways, securing small baskets of money from an array of sources.

The proposed federal budget calls for an 18 percent cut in the Department of Health and Human Services, and it seeks the elimination of the CDBG program. In fact, all of the federal programs mentioned above will get whacked, but the Trump spending reduction plan does not pin a number on Meals on Wheels.

As some rabid Trump fans try to demonize the program on Facebook and Twitter, portraying Meal on Wheels as a federal bureaucracy guilty of waste and fraud, they ignore scientific studies that have found the service is efficient and effective.

Regardless of the degree to which federal funding keeps these programs afloat, the fact is that most of these service organizations need more help, not less, as they remain in constant need of volunteers and they reluctantly put seniors seeking assistance on waiting lists.

Lost in the whole discussion, of course, is the main purpose of Meals on Wheels: It allows homebound seniors to maintain their independence, keeping them out of nursing homes. That saves the federal government huge amounts of cash.

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Critics of the Trump administration may view Mulvaney’s 3 percent claim for Meals on Wheels as another example of the president’s team peddling misinformation.

But what Mulvaney said later in the Meet The Press interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd was perhaps far more disturbing.

While discussing budget basics, he referred to mandatory spending versus discretionary spending and said the discretionary category is “Only about, oh, I don’t know, 25 percent.” The real number is 31 percent.

That’s sort of like a college basketball coach for a 20-10 team telling reporters he’s not sure what the school’s win-loss record is. “Oh, I don’t know, 23-7?”

Mulvaney, who previously served six years in Congress and is now in charge of the budget process, does not know the split in the two broad categories of federal spending?

He was off by the equivalent of $210 billion.

The source of the 31 percent figure, by the way, is the Office of Management and Budget, the agency that Mulvaney oversees.