Anyone ever tell you anger can keep you warm?
"Snag delays heating aid in Bay State; Funds for oil can’t be released without federal authorization" by Erin Ailworth | Globe Staff, November 02, 2011
Thousands of low-income families in Massachusetts missed heating-oil deliveries as federal funding for heating assistance remained tied up in bureaucratic procedures in Washington.....
This as temperatures have plunged to below-normal levels right now.
I noticed that when the banks or Israel want something it is done within a week, no snags.
The delay - even if short-lived - is just the latest challenge facing the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which has had funding cut even as demand jumps in the face of a weak economy and high unemployment. In past years, the program received as much as $5.1 billion, but last fiscal year received about $4.7 billion.
This year, with pressure to rein in mounting deficits, the Obama administration has proposed slashing the heating assistance program by nearly half, to $2.6 billion....
Is that the change you thought you were getting? Why didn't the Democrats rescind the Bush tax cuts and start the tax-the-rich talk three years ago so we could have avoided all this?
Yesterday, people lined up at the agency to apply for heating assistance, even though assistance would likely be delayed. Osrick Ellis, a 64-year-old Boston resident and first-time applicant, said he asked for help after being laid off from his job at Filene’s Basement.
While he has found part-time work, he makes half his previous earnings and expects to struggle to pay heating-oil bills - amounting to $2,000 to $3,000 each season. Ellis said, he and his wife use space heaters and wear sweaters, socks, and hats inside to keep warm.
Cynthia Burgos, 26, of Boston, earns $8 an hour working in retail. She conserves by setting her thermostat between 60 and 64 degrees, weather-stripping windows and doors, and keeping her kids bundled up....
Welcome to AmeriKa, readers.
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