Poor worry over heating aid cuts as winter looms

[cal04]

Poor worry over heating aid cuts as winter looms
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45142763/ns/us_news-life/

Last year Carolyn Brackett and her family received $700 to help pay their gas bills from a federal program for low-income families -- enough to heat their home for six weeks during New Hampshire's long, cold winter.

But this year the Brackett family may get nothing as federal cuts to heating assistance to low-income families have jeopardized aid to thousands of households.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has allotted $1.7 billion for the program so far this year, down from $4.5 billion last year and $5 billion the year before.

(snip)
Republican U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine issued a statement calling the move a "mistake," and U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from neighboring New Hampshire, said the funding level "makes no sense given the record price of heating oil and the early arrival of cold, snowy weather."

[azurnoir]

1. This is a terrible situation to cut the budget for heating assistance by more than half

is cruelty and life endangering to many poor, it also leaves states already cash strapped scrambling to make up some of the difference, will it take people freezing to death in their homes to get the message across-again?

[provis99]

2. They can always get heating oil from Hugo Chavez,

Chavez, being the horrible, inhuman dictator that he is, will likely sell it to them cheap again.

[thatgemguy]

4. I wish...

I just paid nearly $600 for 150 gallons of heating oil, the minimum amount I could get delivered. Based on past usage, I'll need another delivery around the end of the year. Hope this winter is warmer than last.
:scared:

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Any suffering and death will further unite the people against this MONEY problem

where MONEY is more important than people's safety, than people's lives. And that someone made the actual decision to put money ahead of people.

Uh-oh...

[midnight]

5. K&R... We have the money.... Now let's stop this crap....