This was the front page of the local section of The South Bend Tribune.
I wrote about my
first winter bill the other day. But this is ridiculous!!!
"Hope you like your Christmas present Grandma!! Figured it would be inconvenient if you froze to death this winter!!"
From an AP story out of Wisconsin:
In Wisconsin, the number of people who applied for federal lump sum aid of around $300 under the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, jumped from 98,989 in fiscal 2000 to 162,379 in fiscal 2005, said administrator Tim Bruer.
"What we're seeing is an increase in elderly and working poor that are coming in today, who because of their pride in the past haven't come forward, but who have no place to turn now," Bruer said.
But funding for the program has not kept pace with inflation or increased demand.
Federal disbursements from the fund last year were virtually unchanged at around $1.9 billion since its start in 1981, even though the cost of living has doubled over the same period and eligible households have risen from 20 million to 35 million.
Nationally, about 5 million will receive assistance this winter, down from 7.1 million in 1981 despite the burgeoning need, lobbyists say.
"The benefit has not increased. The buying power is about half of what it used to be," said David Fox, spokesman for the lobby group Campaign for Home Energy Assistance. "For low-income households, those cost increases are going to be devastating. These are already people living on the edge."
Congress is now haggling over a proposed $3.2 billion in funding for the program for this winter, a figure that Energy Secretary Sam Bodman told reporters Dec. 8 the White House would support.
But debate is stalled as Republican lawmakers attempt to fund a $56 billion package of tax cuts for the next five years, said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.
"The odds are if anything at all is added, it will be one of the table scraps that goes to the poor," Obey said. "Everything is being sacrificed to those tax cuts."
I really have no answers. As I've said before, I can just work harder and make the money.
What do these people do?