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It's not just Meals on Wheels. These 15 other programs get the ax under Trump's budget.

The problems with President Trump's much-derided 2018 budget don't end with funding cuts for Meals on Wheels and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo by Olivier Douliery/Getty Images.

While cuts to programs that ensure homebound seniors can have human contact and a hot meal and poor kids can watch Big Bird immediately struck much of America as misguided — even cruel — the cuts to those programs are just the tip of the iceberg. According to a report in The Atlantic, the proposed budget looks to defund more than a dozen federal agencies entirely — many of which administer programs families across the country don't even realize they depend on.


Here are 15 ways Trump's budget cuts could negatively affect the lives of Americans and people around the world.

They're not as flashy, but just as concerning.

1. Deadly chemical accidents could become more common.

Photo by Tom Hindman/Getty Images.

The Chemical Safety Board, which has its funding zeroed out by Trump's budget, is tasked with investigating the causes of hazardous material spills and disasters and making recommendations to prevent them from reoccurring.

Eliminating the agency would be "standing up for death and destruction," according to chemical safety consultant Paul Orum in an interview with the Houston Chronicle.

2. If you live in parts of these eight states, finding a doctor could become much harder.

Photo by Robyn Beck/Getty Images.

Delta Doctors, a program that brings foreign-born doctors trained in the United States to underserved areas of Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Mississippi is run by the Delta Regional Authority, an agency whose funding is eliminated by the budget.

People who are poor or elderly are further out of luck. As part of their visa requirements, the Delta Doctors "must provide care to the indigent, Medicaid recipients, and Medicare recipients."

3. Homeless veterans could have an even rougher go of it.

Photo by Frederic J. Brown/Getty Images.

Trump's budget eliminates the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which helps communities across America provide for their most vulnerable populations, including developing special strategies to aid those who served in the military.

4. More Alaskan towns could wind up underwater.

A home near Anchorage tips on its due to beach erosion. Photo by Gabriel Bouys/Getty Images.

Since 2015, the tiny Denali Commission has been working on protecting, repairing, and relocating Alaskan villages that have been damaged, threatened, and uprooted by climate change. Under Trump's proposed budget, that would go away.

5. American companies looking to sell stuff in countries that are just starting to build up their infrastructure would lose out.

Photo by Wang Zhao/Getty Images.

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency sounds sort of boring, but it helps U.S. companies get a leg up on selling their wares to other countries that are building roads, bridges, hospitals, airports, and mobile networks, helping solidify U.S. ties to those countries and create jobs back home.

The agency has enlisted American firms to help build a gigantic solar farm in Jordan, to work on Istanbul's IT systems, and to collaborate with China on aviation. These opportunities would go away under the Trump budget.

6. Coal mining communities in Appalachia could see more potholes and worse medical care.

A coal miner at work in Portage, Pennsylvania. Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images.

Trump's budget axes the Appalachian Regional Commission, which invests in boosting health services, improving physical infrastructure, and developing the economy in coal country.

7. Young people who want to make the world a better place through AmeriCorps would lose one of their best opportunities to do so.

An AmeriCorps volunteer works in Missouri. Photo by Julie Denesha/Getty Images.

Started by President Clinton in 1993, AmeriCorps sends thousands of Americans on volunteer service trips around the country and world, helping struggling communities rebuild, providing job training, and improving America's image globally.

AmeriCorps is run by the Corporation for National and Community Service, which, under Trump's budget, loses all its funding.

8. Struggling communities in rural New England could also see less help for their economic development.

Photo by Sarah Rice/Getty Images.

The budget eliminates the Northern Border Regional Commission, which recently helped a college in Maine build a new manufacturing lab, an airport in New Hampshire build a new hanger, and made dozens of other investments in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and upstate New York.

9. We'd also know less about how to prevent war from breaking out around the world...

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

The U.S. Institute of Peace, which Trump's budget defunds, brings analysts, experts, and conflict survivors from around the world together to discuss and innovate strategies for avoiding violent conflict.

10. ...and less about issues of global concern in general, like how to train more women leaders.

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which studies many areas of international public policy, would also be gutted.

The Center runs The Women in Public Service Project, which sponsors training sessions around the world to cultivate the next generation of female politicians, CEOs, and heads of state.

11. Rural communities across the country could lose one of their best sources of free high-speed internet access.

The proposed budget cuts funding to the Institute of Museum and Library services, which, in recent years, has invested millions of dollars bringing broadband Wi-Fi to libraries in small towns across America, according to an agency statement.

Internet access and online freedom, by the way, were declared a human right by the U.N. in July 2016.

12. Our relations with our neighbors to the south could get even worse...

The destruction of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti. Photo by Nicolas Garcia/Getty Images.

The Inter-American Foundation, which invests in local grassroots development and humanitarian relief projects in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America is also slated to have its budget cut to zero.

13. ...and our relations with countries on distant continents could deteriorate too.

A solar farm in Morocco. Photo by Fadel Senna/Getty Images.

If the U.S. African Development Foundation goes away, similar grassroots and humanitarian projects in Africa would also be on the chopping block.

14. Hundreds of Americans in danger of losing their homes could have a harder time staying put.

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images.

Trump's budget eliminates funding for NeighborWorks America, officially known as Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, which recently invested $40 million in helping American families avoid foreclosure, according to a HousingWire report.

15. Domestic violence victims looking for protection who can't afford lawyers could find themselves out of luck.

Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images.

The Legal Services Corporation, which helps underprivileged Americans — including victims of abuse, shady creditors, and housing malfeasance — get their day in court by providing them with legal aid, is also slated to go under the 2018 budget proposal.

The good news? This budget is just a proposal ... for now.

Trump's plan would mean a lot of pain for a lot of people, but for the moment, a plan is all it is. In order for the budget to take effect, it still has to make it through the House and Senate.

If less war, more art, and fewer chemical burns seem like your jam, call your member of Congress and tell them to oppose it!

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Three women, three MS journeys: How multiple sclerosis looks different for everyone

Gina, Nathalie and Helga share their reactions to being diagnosed with MS and how they stay informed and positive in the face of ever-changing symptoms.

Courtesy of Sanofi

Helga, Nathalie and Gina all have MS, and their experiences show how differently the disease can manifest.

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It’s been 155 years since neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot gave the first lecture on a mysterious progressive illness he called “multiple sclerosis.” Since then, we’ve learned a lot. We know MS causes the immune system to attack healthy tissue, including damaging the brain and spinal cord. Resulting symptoms can be debilitating and include fatigue, blurred vision, memory problems and weakness. Huge advancements in our understanding of MS and its underlying causes, as well as treatment advances, have been made in the past few decades, but MS remains a complex and unpredictable reality for the 2.8 million+ people diagnosed around the world.

Ironically, the only real constant for people living with MS is change. There’s no set pattern or standard progression of the disease, so each person’s experience is unique. Some people with MS have mild symptoms that worsen slowly but sometimes improve, while others can have severe symptoms that drastically alter their daily lives.

All people with MS share some things in common, however, such as the need to stay informed on the ever-evolving research, find various lines of support and try to remain hopeful as they continue living with the disease.

To better understand what navigating life with MS really looks like, three women shared their MS stories with us. Their journeys demonstrate how MS can look different for different people and interestingly, how the language used to talk about the disease can greatly impact how people understand their realities.

woman with horse, woman riding horseGina loves riding her horse, Benita.Courtesy of Sanofi

Gina—Hamburg, Germany (diagnosed with relapsing multiple sclerosis in 2017)

When her youngest son was 4 months old, Gina started having problems with her eye. She’d soon learn she was experiencing optic neuritis—her first symptom of MS.

“Immediately after the diagnosis, I looked up facts on MS because I didn’t know anything about it,” Gina says. “And as soon as I knew what could really happen with this disease, I actually got scared.”

As her family’s primary income provider, she worried about how MS would impact her ability to work as a writer and editor. Her family was afraid she was going to end up in a wheelchair. However, for now, Gina’s MS is managed well enough that she still works full-time and is able to be active.

“When I tell somebody that I have MS, they often don't believe me the first time because I don't fulfill any stereotypes,” she says.

Overwhelmed by negative perspectives on living with MS, Gina sought support in the online MS community, which she found to be much more positive.

“I think it’s important to use as many positive words as you can when talking about MS.” It’s important to be realistic while also conveying hope, she says. “MS is an insidious disease that can cause many bad symptoms…that can be frightening, and you can't gloss over it, either.”

To give back to the online community that helped her so much, Gina started a blog to share her story and help others trying to learn about their diagnosis.

Though she deals with fatigue and cognitive dysfunction sometimes, Gina stays active swimming, biking, riding horses and playing with her sons, who are now 11 and 6.

Cognitive dysfunction is common in MS, with over half of people affected. It can impact memory, attention, planning, and word-finding. As with many aspects of MS, some people experience mild changes, while others face more challenges.

Gina says that while there’s still a lot of education about MS needed, she feels positive about the future of MS because there’s so much research being done.

woman in wheelchair holding medal, woman rowingNathalie is an award-winning rower with multiple international titles.Courtesy of Sanofi

Nathalie — Pennes Mirabeau, France (diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in 2002)

Nathalie was a teenager and a competitive athlete when she noticed her first symptoms of MS, but it would take four years of “limbo” before she was diagnosed.

“Ultimately, the diagnosis was more of a relief, than a shock,” she says. “Because when you have signs and you don’t know why, it’s worse than knowing, in the end, what you have.”

However, learning more about the disease—and the realities of disease progression—scared her.

“That glimpse of the future was direct and traumatic,” she says. Her neurologist explained that the disease evolves differently for everyone, and her situation might end up being serious or very mild. So, she decided to stop comparing herself to others with MS.

She said to herself, “We’ll see what happens, and you’ll manage it bit by bit.”

By 2005, Nathalie’s MS had progressed to the point of needing a wheelchair. However, that has not dampened her competitive spirit.

Nathalie began her international rowing career in 2009 and has won multiple world titles, including two Paralympic medals—silver in London and bronze in Tokyo. Now, at 42, she still trains 11 times a week. Fatigue can be a problem, and sometimes hard workouts leave her with muscle stiffness and shaking, but she credits her ongoing sports career for helping her feel in tune with her body’s signals.

“Over the years, I’ve learned to listen to my body, letting my body guide when I need to stop and take breaks,” she says.

Nathalie explains that she used to only look backwards because of the initial shock of her diagnosis. In time, she stopped thinking about what she couldn’t do anymore and focused on her future. She now lives in the following mindset: “Even when doors close, don’t miss out on those that open.” Instead of focusing on what she can’t do, she focuses on the opportunities she still has. Right now, this includes her training for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, where she will compete for another rowing medal.

“I only go forward,” she says. “Well, I try, anyway…It’s easy to say, it’s not always easy to do. But that’s what I try to do.”

woman exiting water after swimming, woman with great daneHelga's Great Dane has become a helpful and beloved companion.Courtesy of Sanofi

Helga—Johannesburg, South Africa (diagnosed with relapsing multiple sclerosis in 2010)

When Helga first started having balance issues and numbness in her feet, she chalked it up to her training as a runner. But when the numbness moved to her face, she knew something was wrong. She never guessed it was MS.

“When I was diagnosed, I felt completely overwhelmed and clueless,” Helga says. “I felt that I had nowhere near enough information. I did not know anything about the disease…I had no idea that it was going to be a process of continually monitoring and adjusting your lifestyle.”

In the beginning, Helga’s symptoms developed slowly, and she didn’t appear ill to others. She was even able to run for a few years after her diagnosis, but she couldn’t do marathons anymore, and she began to fall frequently due to balance issues and right-foot dragging. Then her cognition issues became more problematic, especially in her job as a trainer in a printing company.

“My executive function, decision-making and short-term memory were affected to the point that I was eventually medically unfit for work,” she says. She stopped working in 2017.

However, she didn’t stop living life. Even though she could no longer run, she continued to swim competitively. She got a Great Dane puppy and trained him as a service dog to help her walk. She also serves as vice chair of the patient support organization Multiple Sclerosis South Africa, and she advises others who have been diagnosed to join a patient advocacy group as soon as possible to get reliable information and meet others with MS.

Helga says she is “hopeful” about the future of MS. “I must say that I am so grateful that we have all the new medications available, because my life would not be the same if it wasn't for that,” she adds.

Part of how she manages her MS is by looking at the positives.

“If I could tell the world one thing about MS, it would be that MS is an incurable disease of the nervous system, but it's also the greatest teacher of valuing your health, family, friends, and managing change in your life,” she says. “My life is diversified in a way that I never, ever thought it would, and MS has been honestly the greatest teacher.”

Each MS journey is unique – with each person impacted experiencing different struggles, successes, and feelings as they manage this unpredictable disease. But the common thread is clear – there is a critical need for information, support, and hope. We are proud to participate in World MS Day and share these incredible stories of living life while living with MS. To learn more about MS, go to https://www.sanofi.com/why-words-really-matter-when-it-comes-to-multiple-sclerosis.

MAT-GLB-2301642-v1.0-05/2023

This article was sponsored by Sanofi. Participants were compensated when applicable.

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Man lists things millennials grew up with that Gen Z would be outraged by

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Things Gen Z would be outraged by that were normal for millennials.

There will likely always be some kind of playful generation war going on between older and younger generations. This time it's a millennial throwing what some may deem as truth bombs at Gen Z, seemingly unprompted. (Well, it could be that he's upset that Gen Z is getting all the credit for being tech savvy since the majority of his complaints were technology related.)

Dwight Thomas uploaded a video to TikTok listing things that millennials grew up with that the generation below him would be outraged by. As someone who would be considered an elder millennial by some people, I'd have to agree. The man makes some valid points about things we experienced as teenagers that would likely make teens today aggressively send out Change.org petitions.

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Thompson has helped relocate countless hives–found everywhere from backyard playgrounds to sheds to compost bins—all while documenting how it’s done. Plus she narrates the process with a voice so soft and soothing it doubles as an ASMR video. But really, it's her signature flair of doing it all with her bare hands that always leaves people completely floored.

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