I don' think this story was mentioned in the Republican debate the other night. Niot by the candidates and not by the moderators. However, if you want to know what is going on in Michigan right now, and what your future may hold for you if Republicans ever pass their "austerity" agenda let me point you to this article about an 86 year old retired autoworker whose heat was cut off because the utility company didn't bother to check to see he was covered by a law that precluded seniors from having their power cut off.
It appears John Morgan, the 86-year-old man found dead in his truck three days after his power was cut off, did not tell Consumers he was over age 65.
State law bars utilities from shutting off power of senior citizens, provided their age is known.
John Morgan had been a customer of Consumers Energy for 60 years. When the law was passed in 2009, he was 84 years old. However, pre-2009 customers were required to tell the utility that they were over 65 years old. Now one would think that Consumers Energy should have known that he was over 65, because of their long history providing services to Mr Morgan. But if someone who worked for them did, apparently they didn't care. He hadn't told them he was over 65 so, too bad for you Mr. Morgan, you lose your heat and get to die in your car in a failed attempt to stay warm. You didn't follow the rules, and we all know how important the rules are, don't we.
Did the company make an effort to inform Mr. Morgan of this requirement? I have no idea, but I can imagine that an 84 year old might have failed to notice a piece of mail from Consumers Energy informing him of this requirement, or not understood the consequences after reading it (assuming they did send him such a notice and he opened it and read it). In fact, I can imagine a lot of seniors in Michigan, are in Mr. Morgan's former situation, having failed to inform their utility that they are over 65.
Of course, the law has several requirements that must be fulfilled. You can't just simply call up your Michigan utility and give them your age. There are procedures to follow and if you satisfy them, tough luck for you. If you don't provide your social security number, or you can't remember it, so the utility can verify this fact, it doesn't matter that you are in fact over 65.
I'm sorry you had to die Mr. Morgan, but to the Republicans you and millions of other Americans are just an expense on a balance sheet that is getting in the way of corporations making money. Not that they aren't willing to fake a little sympathy for your plight if it creates a public relations issue for them, all while subtly implying your death was all your fault in the first place.
[Consumers Energy spokesperson Terry DeDoes] said Consumers has other safeguards in place, such as a third party option, which allows another person to handle a customer's bill if they are unable.
Yeah, Mr. Morgan, they had other safeguards. It's your own damn fault you didn't know about them or take advantage of them, not theirs.
Of course, the real question is why utilities are allowed to cut off heat to anyone in the dead of winter, old, young or in between. Hell in Michigan alone, 38% of seniors have trouble paying their heating bills, and I'm sure if the entire population of the state was included it would show that a large percentage of non-seniors have that very same problem.
It would seem to me that it wouldn't be that hard to have a government program that requires someone be three months in arrears before the utility could shut off their heat and electricity. Further it should be mandatory that someone from the utility made actual contact with people behind on their bills and offer them alternative payment plans or information regarding government assistance programs before leaving them in the cold. Indeed, why not have a government fund dedicated to subsidizing people who cannot afford costly heating bills during the winter and/or a program that allows them to spread out their payments during those months of the year when their bills are lower? This is precisely what government is for and what it does well.
It's a tragedy for Mr. Morgan's family he had to die this way over an unpaid bill of $291.00, which I suspect represents one month of his energy usage. But the larger tragedy is that millions of people in America live in such dire straits that they have to choose between paying their heating bills or buying food for their kids. The greater tragedy is that anyone has to choose between going to the doctor or the dentist and paying their rent.
The greatest tragedy is that Republicans want to make our safety net, as bad as it is now, even worse. They want to lower taxes on the wealthiest people (corporate or otherwise) while raising them on the poor and middle class. They want to eliminate contraception and prenatal screening and other health services for women. They want insurance companies to have the right to exclude people from coverage if they have a pre-existing condition, and deny claims on the flimsiest excuses while still raking in monstrous profits. They want to continue to subsidize Big Oil, an industry that is the most profitable industry in history, and they want the modest regulations imposed upon Wall Street to be eliminated. They want to cut or eliminate social security, medicare and medicaid while allowing major corporations like GE to make profits while avoiding paying any taxes at all. They want your job shipped overseas, and they want the right to trade in the markets on inside information for themselves (& friends, of course) in the bargain.
Mr. Morgan, you are a martyr now in Michigan, but you are also a symbol of the future that awaits all of us in a new and better Republican [i.e., Corporate Controlled] America. Indeed, in that future (which continues to come ever closer each day), most of us won't live as long as you did.
A previous diary about Mr. Morgan can be found here.