The face of the needy (she just received the new fan from an organization called Aging Services)
Not only do the needy get help paying their air conditioning billss...they are also provided with free air conditioners - many of which are then stolen!
RUSH: This story was in the Christian Science Monitor three days ago. "Heat Wave: Federal Program to Help Needy Pay Cooling Bills is Broke." What isn't broke? In the winter we don't have the money to pay heating oil bills. Now in the summer we don't have the money to help the needy pay their cooling bills. In Port St. Lucie they've run out of Chicken McNuggets, so you call 911. In other parts of the country some guy in a drug deal doesn't get the right change, he calls 911.
"Robert 'Bo' Chilton, who heads a social service center in Columbus, Ohio, noticed an ambulance outside his office this week. When he spoke to his staff, he found out that an elderly man and woman had both collapsed from heat exhaustion as they trudged to the center," the social services center, "in the 90 degree heat. "Then Mr. Chilton heard why they were destined for his office: they needed help paying their electric bills, which spiked this month -- on account of the heat." Where's Hugo Chavez when you need him? He's out there paying heating oil bills for people in Massachusetts in the wintertime. I guess he forgot about the people in Columbus, Ohio.
"The federal government," get this, now "the federal government sends states around $5 billion a year to subsidize low-income households’ heating and cooling bills." Now, we don't have that $5 billion. Folks, do you understand that we don't have any of this money? We're spending it but we don't have it. "The government also reserves several hundred million dollars more," above and beyond the five billion, "which it can distribute to states during weather emergencies, such as the heat wave that is currently scorching large swaths of the country." But again, no heat records are being broken. Contrary to everything you've seen in the news, heat records are not being broken.
"But this year’s federal budget slashed that emergency reserve by about two-thirds, from $590 million down to $200 million. By the time the heat wave arrived this month, the pool of emergency energy assistance money was empty." Really? The emergency pool was empty before the emergency hit. You have a pool. In the pool you got money. It's there for an emergency, $590 million. The emergency hits. Uh-oh, only $200 million's in it. Where did the other $210 million go? Any guesses? Want to guess personal back pockets? "'The administration has no tools to use,' says Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association, which represents the state administrators of the federally funded energy-assistance program."
So we've got this agency called the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association, and the administration has no tools, meaning we don't have any money. "Air conditioners and large fans can keep the summer heat at bay -- but they also guzzle electricity and cause utility bills to soar. Unable to pay for power without government support, some low-income families and seniors try to brave the heat without fans or A/C.
'There’s no reason for anyone to become sick or die because of bills,' says Mr. Wolfe.
The federal government stipulates that the income of households that receive the energy assistance money must be no greater than 150 percent of the federal income level or 60 percent of the state median income. While the money is mainly meant to go toward heating and cooling bills, states can also use it for related programs, such as distributing free air conditioners.
"In New York City, during the first two weeks of the program, 4,500 people applied for 2,400 available air conditioners," and then once they were distributed thieves came along, did you see that story? The thieves started stealing the air conditioners. "'I’m sure we’re saving a lot of people’s lives,' says Ms. Olga Souto, who added that a large share of the applicants were elderly. The center is no longer accepting applications. Meanwhile, many elderly Americans in New York and around the country may bring in too much money each month to qualify for cooling subsidies -- but barely enough to stay cool."
You know, I grew up in the Midwest, and I lived there through age 19. It's hard to believe that there are so many places without some manner of air-conditioning by now. But it seems every year come hell or high water, the Drive-Bys are gonna find old poor people who can't manage to get a free air conditioner from the government or free heating oil and the accompanying stories are gonna be, "Oh, what a rotten country, oh, my God, the suffering, oh, we've never seen anything like it." How is it that in this country of such vast wealth, even among our poor -- the Heritage Foundation has updated what is poverty in this country, Robert Rector and his boys. Got that in the stack here somewhere. How is it that a heat wave, which happens every summer, throws the budget so out of whack that only the federal government can save the day? How is that?
I'll tell you how it is. It's because the money that's allocated never gets to where it's intended. Can I mention the levees in New Orleans? It's the same thing. You've got outright theft and fraud. You got people in charge of large amounts of money. There's no way to account for it all. It's just a mess and the fact that we claim we don't have enough money for this or that, it boggles my mind. All the money that we do have, all the money that's been wasted. Nothing's real anymore. So we get this once Great Society, it's under assault. We're watching it right before our very eyes being assaulted, and the Washington, DC, ruling class comes up with their temporary fixes that end up serving the purpose primarily of applauding themselves for dealing with another crisis that they've manufactured in the first place. One Armageddon after another.
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