A fight over the presidential discretionary budget in Taiwan has cost sheltered workshops and disability groups their Mid-Autumn gift box orders, hurting the workers those groups employ.

• Opposition KMT and TPP lawmakers used their majority to cut and freeze the entire NT$30 million presidential discretionary fund.
• The Presidential Office then canceled 15,000 mooncake gift boxes it had ordered from 37 sheltered workshops and disability groups.
• Five Taichung charities lost more than 1,500 boxes worth about NT$510,000, and the city government says it will buy the same amount instead.
• Opposition lawmakers say the fund is flexible presidential money, not welfare aid, and accuse the government of using disabled workers as a political shield.
• The ruling side counters that the cuts are what killed the orders, turning a budget fight into a dispute over who abandoned vulnerable groups.

Outlook: Taichung's city purchase should cover the lost orders this year, but the budget standoff between the opposition-controlled legislature and the Presidential Office is set to keep escalating.