Money to help US poor pay winter bills runs low

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22375600.htm

Money to help US poor pay winter bills runs low

NEW YORK, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Several U.S. states are running low on heating aid for low-income families well ahead of the coldest winter months, as natural gas prices trade at nearly double last year's levels, according to a group of state energy officials.

States had been hoping for $2 billion in additional aid to the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance program in the massive wartime military spending bill which the Senate passed on Wednesday and which could have boosted the program's funds in the face of record fuel costs.

The $2 billion in extra LIHEAP aid was offered as an incentive for Northeastern senators to vote for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, a Republican, had attached to the bill.

But after Democrats killed ANWR drilling in the bill on Wednesday, the LIHEAP assistance was stripped out.

[liberal N proud]

1. Of course, assistance money had to pay for the tax cut for the wealthy

or to pay for bombs for Baghdad.

[Skittles]

4. in the Dallas Morning News recently

there was an ariticle about a Dallas cop dying of cancer facing huge bills and the article mentioned that money that could have assisted him had "dried up in recent years"....no further explanation. Gee, I wonder where that money went. :puke:

[stepnw1f]

2. The GOP is Trying to Break Our Backs

sick and evil

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. With unemployment and increased poverty levels in the US

our nation has become the richest nation on earth only for those who gain by BushCo/PNAC hoodlums.

Lengthy, but VERY worth the read!
This is a very interesting April 2005 article re: poverty and unemployment in the US:
http://www.monthlyreview.org/0405yates.htm

A Statistical Portrait of the U.S. Working Class
by Michael D. Yates

The biennial State of Working America (hereinafter SWA), written by economists at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., is the best compendium and analysis of U.S. labor market statistics there is.* In one convenient book, there are data on the distribution of income and wealth, all aspects of wages and benefits, employment and unemployment, poverty, regional labor markets, and international labor comparisons. In addition to the data, there are explanations for all of the major labor market trends.

<snip>
Table 1 does not include separate unemployment rates for women. These have been very close to, and in some years below, those for men for more than a decade. Women used to have higher unemployment rates than men, but the decline of sectors of the economy dominated by male employment, especially manufacturing, has helped to make the rates converge. Also not shown in the table is “hidden unemployment” (see note at the bottom of table 1), which fell dramatically during the expansion as part-time workers were able to find full-time jobs and those who had dropped out of the labor force reentered it and found work. However, this too has increased considerably during the recession and jobless recovery.

<snip>
...both income and wealth are horribly unequally distributed (58–72, 277–307). The rich are definitely getting richer, both absolutely and relatively, and the poor are getting poorer in both senses as well. The economic pie has steadily gotten bigger, but the share going to those at the bottom has actually shrunk, as most of the gains from greater productivity have gone to the owners of capital.


And this is one of the tables from the article that shows the statistics re: unemployment. The author makes note of the fact that the numbers DO NOT include those who are still unemployed and no longer receiving benefits, as well as those who are "involuntarily part-time employed" because they have not found full-time employment.

If you read the article, all of the tables and charts make it very clear of the growing disparity of poor to wealthy in our nation that has been rising greatly since BushCo/PNAC stole our country.

http://www.monthlyreview.org/0405yates.htm

[ninkasi]

5. The time may come

when people can no longer feed their families, or heat their homes, or get medical help for their children, when they just might decide that it isn't so important, after all, to prevent gays from marrying. They might decide that casting their votes for Democrats will improve their lot in life, and let other people make their own moral decisions.

When faced with starvation, running other people's sex lives might be seen as a luxury, more than a reason to vote for a party which is bleeding you dry. We can only hope this happens before too many more people have to suffer for neocon greed.

[jwirr]

7. Times will have to get damn bad for it to hit the middle

class that voted for their own downfall. You have to be quite poor to qualify for most of the assistance the government has offered in the past.

[progressivebydesign]

6. Bullshit. Bush cut the funding for low income heating last year. n/t