Much ado has been made about Obama's proposed cuts to LIHEAP. The proposed cut is from the current 5.1 billion dollars down to 2.5 billion dollars, a little over half.
Now the rationalization for these cuts is that Obama doubled the outlay for FY 2009 because of the energy price spike, and is now just going back to the normal, pre 2009 levels since energy prices have come down off the spike.
But this notion is simply belied by the facts, let's take a look at a few of them.
First off, energy costs aren't going down, they're going up. Heating oil prices have risen, and the cost of propane is at an all time high. Not to mention gas, and electric prices are all going up. Yes, gasoline hasn't spiked up to the level it was a few years ago, but it is getting there, and other energy prices are actually above their 2009 highs.
Secondly, the number of people who are served by LIHEAP has increased dramatically. Currently, 8.9 million people are served by LIHEAP, 600,000 more people than last year, and a record breaking number for the third year in a row.
So with energy prices rising, and the number of people being served is breaking records, what happens if LIHEAP assitance is cut? For every billion dollars cut from the program, the amount of an average heating bill that is covered by LIHEAP decreases by approximately six percent. Further, for every billion dollars cut, approximately one million people are robbed of any assistance whatsoever. So, to sum up, with a cut of 2.6 billion dollars, LIHEAP will be serving 2.5 million fewer people, 2.5 million people who will be unable to either heat or cool their house next year. Worse, even if a person does remain in the LIHEAP program, they will be expected to pay fifteen percent more on their energy bills, a huge burden on the poor, and especially those with fixed income, namely the elderly.
So contrary to the happy, happy, joy, joy talk being put out by the administration, these cuts to LIHEAP aren't benign cuts designed to bring us back in line with the pre 2009 energy prices. These are brutal cuts to a program that is vital for the survival of low income and elderly. What are those 2.5 million people who will get thrown off the assistance rolls supposed to do for heat next winter? What about those elderly folks who will no longer get cooling assistance in the summer, what are they supposed to do? Go without food? Not pay the rent? Go without their medication?
Or simply die?
That seems to be the elephant in the room that this administration doesn't want to talk about. Cutting this much needed program in half is going to force people to make difficult, desperate and dangerous decisions. Worse yet, without this program, people will die.
All to gain what, 2.6 billion in deficit cuts? What, you can't get this out of the military budget? Hell the military has lost more money than that in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
But instead, we're going to let people die, cold and alone. That's what these cuts to LIHEAP mean.
Sources:
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http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/02/cold-war-proposed-budget-cuts-to-heating-program-draw-swift-backlash.html>
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http://www.liheap.org/investment.html>
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http://stage-v4.federalnewsradio.com/?sid=2264180&nid=37>