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This may be a brilliant plan to kill off some Democratic voters in colder northern states. I'm sure right-wingers approve.
Quote:
President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating heating aid for low-income Americans, claiming it's no longer necessary and rife with fraud. People needn't worry about being left in the cold, he says, because utilities cannot cut off customers in the dead of winter.
This is more complex than it looks on the surface because of the interaction between LIHEAP & food stamps.
LIHEAP (the heat assistance program) triggers higher food stamp payments and a bunch of states aggressively give out the bare minimum LIHEAP amount to far more people than need it to pull down more federal food stamp dollars than otherwise would be given (supplementing with state dollars if and when the federal ones for LIHEAP run out). Used to be $1 would do it; in 2014 the minimum was raised to $20 to stamp out the behavior but predictably several of the states just went up to $20.
Can get a lot of the savings by ending this link rather than LIHEAP as a whole, it's about a third as much money as the entirety of the direct spending on LIHEAP and wholly unnecessary.
I think a few months ago people posted a thread about this program in the economics forum and most people said in that forum that the program is outdated and a good percentage of those people sell the oil. This program should be eliminated. The majority of people who receive this oil don't use it for heating.
I spend $ 300 a month on AC without any government aid. If I paid taxes I wouldn't want them going to pay someone's heating bill. I'd rather send the extra heat I have through the mail directly to someone I chose.
Once again DT proves he is a tone deaf idiot set upon catering to his own (the wealthy) at the expense of everyone else.
While in many areas of the USA utilities cannot "cut you off during the winter" what of it? Soon as the official heating season is over there will be a *HUGE* bill that must be paid and then utilities can and often do turn people's gas or electric off.
Those who depend upon oil for heating (a good part of the Northeast for example), propane or other delivered fuel don't have to worry about being "cut off". If they cannot pay for oil or whatever to be delivered, they won't have any, unless someone lets them run up a tab.
Heating oil is not common in the Midwest. Most have electric or natural gas heat. Those who qualify get a credit on their bill. The electric/natural gas companies cannot disconnect people during the winter. Once the period ends, there is a lot of disconnections.
Every year, people freeze to death even with the heating program.
This may be a brilliant plan to kill off some Democratic voters in colder northern states. I'm sure right-wingers approve.
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Quote:
President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating heating aid for low-income Americans, claiming it's no longer necessary and rife with fraud. People needn't worry about being left in the cold, he says, because utilities cannot cut off customers in the dead of winter.
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