After hearing reports of another senior citizen who lost their life due to not having heat during a winter storm, I began to think of a solution to this tragedy. After giving it some thought, I came up with a proposal that I think would virtually eliminate not only these deaths, but the untold suffering and misery that exists for seniors that cannot afford basic utility bills.
My proposal is that the Social Security Administration create a program whereby that administration would automatically pay for the electricity and natural gas bills for anyone who qualifies for Social Security payments, up to a reasonable maximum, expressed in Kilowatt-hours (the billing unit for electricity) and Therms (the billing unit for natural gas).
When the program starts, everyone receiving Social Security payments would receive two certificates that they would then send in to their utility companies to notify them of their enrollment into the program. This would allow those who do not wish to participate in the program a way of opting out. The utilities would then register the customer in a new Social Security database as receiving their service. This would eliminate duplication and fraud.
It should then become illegal to stop the utility service for anyone enrolled in this program, punishable by fines and penalties. The utility would work with the Social Security Administration for payment, not the customer.
To pay for this program, I would suggest that half of the funds needed come out of existing social security payments and the other half come from an increase in the social security budget. Hopefully such a small amount of increase would not require an increase in social security taxes by a minuscule amount, but if so I believe it would be for a worthwhile reason. The point would be that the entire amount not come directly out of existing payments, as this would punish those recipients that are not currently paying for their utilities and would not be a net benefit to anyone.
As a side benefit, this would engage seniors, a large portion of the voting public, to the problems of unstable and finite carbon-based energy sources. As prices go up, as they clearly will over time, there will be pressure to cut this program from conservative politicians opposed to the "nanny state". Push back will come from those seniors who are now accustomed to not having to worry about freezing to death in winter and dying of heat in the summer, forcing politicians in general to be more reactive about securing reliable, safe, and hopefully domestic sources of energy.
My goal is to send this letter to my senators and representative. What do you all think? Does this proposal already exist out there somewhere?