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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump administration proposes eliminating crucial program that helps low-income people pay for heat
While the media is falling over themselves to cover Trump's distraction tweets....
President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating heating aid for low-income Americans, claiming its no longer necessary and rife with fraud. People neednt worry about being left in the cold, he says, because utilities cannot cut off customers in the dead of winter.
The heating program provides a critical lifeline for people like Perkins, and officials close to the program dont see any widespread fraud. Guidelines for winter shutoffs by utilities vary from state to state and dont apply to heating oil, a key energy source in the brittle New England winter. Its beyond my thinking that anyone could be that cruel, said Perkins, a retired restaurateur who relies on the program to keep warm in Ogunquit, Maine.
Mark Wolfe, of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, said that the Trump administration is relying on an old General Accounting Office report on the fraud claim, and that improvements have been made since then. In Maine, for example, only 100 cases 0.3 percent of all submitted applications are being investigated for potential fraud, according to MaineHousing.And programs aimed at preventing utilities from being turned off wouldnt protect everyone. Utility regulations vary, with some states preventing shutoffs during the entire winter and others doing so only on exceptionally cold days.
And theres absolutely no requirement for heating oil and propane dealers, which are not regulated like electric and natural gas utilities, to make deliveries to customers who cannot pay. Thats a big problem in the Northeast, which accounts for more than 80 percent of the nations residential heating oil consumption.
https://apnews.com/7ccd3eb307dd4a4583ceaeae1fa87327/Congress-is-cool-to-Trump's-proposal-to-end-heating-aid?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP
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Trump administration proposes eliminating crucial program that helps low-income people pay for heat (Original Post)
HipChick
Jul 2017
OP
The world's biggest fraud is concerned about people committing fraud for heat?
world wide wally
Jul 2017
#4
Demit
(11,238 posts)1. How much uglier can this fucker get.
HipChick
(25,485 posts)2. It will be too late..
by the time we discover all the havoc being wrecked....
spanone
(135,795 posts)3. cruel fuckers in the white house....cruel fuckers.
world wide wally
(21,739 posts)4. The world's biggest fraud is concerned about people committing fraud for heat?
Deb
(3,742 posts)5. Anyone else remember Venezuela's gifts of oil? This GOP shame is not new