a) There's nothing in the original post that's contradictory to increasing existing services. That's a valid way of accomplishing the sentence-long goal

b) I was arguing that there's benefit to a Meals-on-Wheels-like program that wouldn't be captured by just giving people money for food

One of the points of a service like Meals on Wheels is for people who can't easily make it out of the house. And it gives those people not just food, but someone to talk to for a bit, which is especially important when you aren't able to easily make it out of the house.

Being driven is way more important to success than being smart. And that's true whether you're driven for good or ill.

I just listened to this one (I'm a bit behind) and given how things are going in universities, it felt uncomfortably timely

I had a professor call them upstairs and downstairs, which I've always liked

So, you're saying I shouldn't say that if Manchin and Sinema had just gotten on board with Build Back Better, Harris would have won?