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Senate OKs $1B to Help Poor Afford Energy
Associated Press ^ | 08 March, 2006 | JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press

Posted on 03/08/2006 10:21:17 AM PST by newgeezer

WASHINGTON -- The Senate has agreed to put an additional $1 billion this year into a program to help poor people with energy costs, but only after overcoming resistance from warm state senators who said those suffering from summer heat weren't getting their fair share.

The additional spending would increase to $3.1 billion the amount the federal government will have this year for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, a decades-old program that subsidizes heating and cooling costs for poor families.

The legislation, which still must be considered by the House, passed by a voice vote Tuesday, but only after a lengthy debate between northern state senators, who said rising heating costs were creating a crisis in their states, and lawmakers from warmer states who claimed they were being shortchanged.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, D-Maine, sponsor of the legislation, said people in her state were going without food to pay for heating or, in more dire cases, being hospitalized with hypothermia. "Come to Maine and tell us about it being a mild winter," she said.

Snowe's original bill would have distributed $250 million under an existing formula that she said would mainly benefit warm-weather states. The remaining $750 million would have been labeled contingency funding and disbursed at the discretion of the president. The money was shifted from $1 billion that had been set aside for fiscal 2007.

But that wasn't acceptable to several of her Republican colleagues from the South and Southwest, who said that division would only exacerbate the program's traditional slant toward heating rather than cooling assistance.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said LIHEAP spending tends to be front-ended, with the money being used up in the winter months so nothing is left when the temperatures in Arizona climb over 100 degrees. He said the Arizona LIHEAP program reaches only 4 percent of those eligible for assistance.

Kyl said all the money should be decided by formula so that all states were guaranteed a fair share.

"We don't deny there is a need," said Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev. But "is it fair across the country or does it benefit some states and not other states?"

Snowe finally offered a compromise under which 50 percent of the new money would be distributed according to the existing formula, and the other 50 percent be considered emergency spending. That proposal was approved 68-31.

"We're denying the president the ability to respond to an emergency," she said of the Kyl proposal. "States are going to receive funding when there is no emergency?" she added. "How does that make sense?"

Congress authorized $5.1 billion for home energy aid as part of an energy bill passed last summer, but budgetary constraints pushed the final figure for fiscal 2006 down to $2.1 billion, largely unchanged from the $2 billion level that has held steady in recent years.

Last week Snowe successfully overcame opposition from conservative Republicans, led by Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who tried to kill the bill on the grounds that the spending was not offset by cuts in other programs.

Federal assistance for home energy costs, dating back to the oil crisis of the 1970s, now reaches some 5 million families. Proponents of expanding the program say the $2 billion budget doesn't go very far when there are some 33 million households, spending about $55 billion a year in energy costs, eligible for the program.

___

Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/liheap/


TOPICS: Breaking News; Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; US: Arizona; US: Maine; US: Nevada; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: 109th; accordingtoability; accordingtoneeds; buyingvotes; deregulation; energy; entitlements; federalspending; handouts; incrementalism; liheap; marxism; payingpaul; robbingpeter; roleofgovernment; snowe; socialism
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To: newgeezer

There you go!!!!! thanks


81 posted on 03/08/2006 3:28:37 PM PST by malia
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To: inquest

yeah and then the damned Dems and the liberal Republicans will backload military spending bills with all this other crap.

It WILL happen. hell it HAS happened.


82 posted on 03/08/2006 3:30:09 PM PST by MikefromOhio (22,952+ replies - wow I'm talkative.....)
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To: MikefromOhio
All he has to do is make it clear to the public when he vetoes it that the Congressmen who do this are the ones playing games with national security, not he. If he says it clearly enough, it'll resonate. Even people who don't normally like him will agree with him on that principle, as long as he's unequivocal about it.
83 posted on 03/08/2006 3:48:12 PM PST by inquest (If you favor any legal status for illegal aliens, then do not claim to be in favor of secure borders)
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To: newgeezer

"going without food to pay for heating or, in more dire cases, being hospitalized with hypothermia."

I sure hope Global Warming gets here soon.


84 posted on 03/08/2006 3:54:39 PM PST by edcoil (Reality doesn't say much - doesn't need too)
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To: inquest
Even people who don't normally like him will agree with him on that principle

Where were you during the runup to the 2004 election when Iraq needed winning?
85 posted on 03/08/2006 3:55:35 PM PST by MikefromOhio (22,952+ replies - wow I'm talkative.....)
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To: Mark Felton

Too bad the constitution did not make it explicitly clear. Our founding fathers never dreamed that the Federal Government would have such power.


86 posted on 03/08/2006 4:44:34 PM PST by GeorgefromGeorgia
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To: Indy Pendance

dry up... or implode in a catastrophic paragon of socialist economics. ;-)


87 posted on 03/08/2006 5:00:34 PM PST by LurkedLongEnough
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To: GeorgefromGeorgia

The Constitution did make it explicitly clear. The Party members have chosen to ignore it and have selected Supreme Court judges who will affirm their positions.

The Constitution provides explicit authority to the fedgov. It can only do those things specifically stated. The means for implenting the tasks are t.b.d. but the scope of the authority is not fuzzy at all.

It is a pure, unadulterated lie if anybody tries to tell you that the words "...to promote the general welfare..." assign any authority to the fedgov beyond what is explicitly stated,

Those words are in the PRE-AMBLE, which is an introduction to the list of responsibilities that follow.

It states "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

"do ordain and establish this constitution". The rest of the Constitution defines what authority it has, not the introduction.

Politicians have been taking advantage of the illiteracy of the American people for decades now, in this regard.


88 posted on 03/08/2006 5:22:53 PM PST by Mark Felton ("Your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.")
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To: tfecw
Cool, i didn't know the feds were paying bills for poor folks now.

They're not. You are. They just happen to be the involuntary transfer agency

89 posted on 03/08/2006 5:26:35 PM PST by from occupied ga (Peace through superior firepower)
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To: newgeezer
Thanks, Republicans.

Next election cycle, and every one after that, you can blow it out your asses.

90 posted on 03/08/2006 6:04:42 PM PST by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government "job" attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: newgeezer

So do the people want freedom or handouts, because you can't have both. Freedom means you take care of these things yourself.


91 posted on 03/08/2006 7:02:59 PM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: newgeezer

I'm taking a Constitutional Law class, and this makes me so mad! What the hell happened to actually reading the General Welfare clause? Has any public official even looked at the Constitution?


92 posted on 03/08/2006 7:36:42 PM PST by TeenagedConservative
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To: MikefromOhio
Where does President Bush have a vote in the Senate?

C'mon Mike! Bush has a veto vote and he does not cast it! He does not have a vote in the Senate, but he does have a veto vote at the Oval Office that he chooses not to cast.

This is a 48% Increase in Welfare when inflation is running less than 4%.

There are RAT liberals and there are Republican liberals and socialists. Face the facts--the Republicans do not represent conservatives any longer.

What we true conservatives here need to do is to show outrage at their socialism. Those of you who continue to defend their RAT-like behavior is only slopping the hogs and you are helping to support their socialistic behavior.

93 posted on 03/08/2006 7:41:54 PM PST by Dont_Tread_On_Me_888 (Bush's #1 priority Africa. #2 priority appease Fox and Mexico . . . USA priority #64.)
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To: newgeezer

And the funny thing is, the Compost still has it wrong (or is it right; I never know with RepublicRATs)


94 posted on 03/08/2006 7:51:55 PM PST by steveegg (Sen. Ted "Swimmer" Kennedy's vehicles have killed more people than V.P. Dick Cheney's guns)
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To: newgeezer
LOL. I bet the RINO doesn't even flinch if she sees that.

And I will bet you the Rhino Prez has no compunctions on signing this either if he gets it...

95 posted on 03/08/2006 7:53:49 PM PST by antaresequity (PUSH 1 FOR ENGLISH - PUSH 2 TO BE DEPORTED)
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To: MaDuce
Congress should just send the households in the north a copy of the tax code that is printed up each year. I'm sure the poor could heat their homes easly just throwing a few dozen pages in the fire every day during the winter.

Best idea yet!
96 posted on 03/08/2006 8:09:20 PM PST by FriendDownUnder (Where I live, I've forgotten the meaning of the word "cold"...)
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To: newgeezer

Every law from Congress that grants any benefit to any single citizen should apply to all other citizens equally. That would fix this nonsense PDQ.


97 posted on 03/08/2006 9:10:35 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (A Liberal: One who demands half of your pie, because he didn't bake one.)
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To: newgeezer
The legislation, which still must be considered by the House

I sure hope the House kills this.
All you can do anymore is shake your head in disgust and tell yourself, "Okay, as long as the scumbags DO NOT consider ever raising my taxes again."

Meanwhile, the scumbags BETTER make the original Bush tax cuts permanent.

98 posted on 03/08/2006 9:18:34 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: newgeezer

By the way, I am about sick up to here with supporting friggin' "poor people".
My hands are full enough supporting my own family, thank you.


99 posted on 03/08/2006 9:20:44 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Dont_Tread_On_Me_888

John Kennedy was more conservative that Bush and all of today's Republican weasels.


100 posted on 03/08/2006 9:40:03 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (A Liberal: One who demands half of your pie, because he didn't bake one.)
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