Just over a year ago, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney was being raked over the coals for his budget blueprint. In addition to supposed cuts to the Meals on Wheels program (which weren’t really cuts), the document projected savings of $72.5 billion within Social Security’s two main programs for the disabled.

Liberal journalists injected outrage into their reports and columns. Some denounced this modest frugality as President Trump’s “deceitful attack on the disabled” and called the justifications for the reforms “false claims.” Others snarkily but accurately noted that the cuts “will hurt Trump counties,” which perhaps should have signaled that they were not cynical, as suggested.