Venezuela reinstates free home heating oil for poor in U.S.

[ensho]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/59215.html


The Venezuelan government reversed course Wednesday, announcing that its U.S. oil subsidiary would continue to provide free home heating oil to poor Americans two days after the government announced that the program had been suspended.

Critics of President Hugo Chavez had pummeled him since Monday for suspending a program that he had milked for its maximum publicity as a champion of the poor, even in the U.S.

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Venezuelan government officials wasted no time in reinstating the program, which saved about 180,000 U.S. households around $260 apiece in 2008. That covered about one month's heating bill.

Among the beneficiaries of the 100 gallons of heating oil were 65 Indian tribes, including those in Alaska, Montana and South Dakota.
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[stillcool]

1. Funny how people fail to see...

the issue of people who can't afford to heat their homes. Why should Hugo Chavez give a shit? I loved this part...

Monday's announcement also had prompted critics to have a field day with Kennedy, the son of Robert F. Kennedy and a former Democratic congressman. Kennedy had announced that 20 staffers would be laid off.

"For Joe, all that remains was sullied family honor and no fuel," Investor's Business Daily wrote Tuesday. "He'd been used by Chavez during the boom, thrown overboard as excess baggage during the bust, and finally realized it Monday."