The Taichung City Government will purchase the Mid-Autumn Festival gift box orders cancelled by the Presidential Office — good news for the sheltered workshops affected, but it has also set off mutual blame between the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party over responsibility for the Legislative Yuan's budget cuts and freezes.

• The Legislative Yuan cut and froze NT$30 million from the Presidential Office's state affairs fund, making it impossible to carry out a planned purchase of Mid-Autumn pastries from 37 sheltered workshops.
• In Taichung, about 1,578 boxes ordered from five social welfare groups were cancelled. Mayor Lu Shiow-yen said four city government departments would buy up all of them.
• DPP city councillors criticised the move, saying the cuts were the work of the KMT and the Taiwan People's Party acting together, and that the city government should not take the orders while shifting the blame onto the Presidential Office.
• The green camp also questioned the funding source and legal basis, arguing that Taichung residents' own tax money should not be used to fill a budget gap created by cuts at the central level.
• The city government responded that it has always given priority to caring for the disadvantaged, and that it moved to buy the boxes on its own initiative upon learning the groups urgently needed help.

Outlook: The purchase relieves the sheltered workshops' immediate difficulties, but the political fighting over the budget cuts and freezes will not subside any time soon.