State Democrats’ selective stinginess | Republican-American

It’s surpassingly strange that Congress and the Connecticut legislature, both controlled by Democrats, have been unable to rouse themselves to show concern for the party’s traditional targets for government benefits – the people most in need of help to get through tough times.

Connecticut’s low income earners, unemployed, disabled and retirees face staggering utility costs this winter. They got a taste of what may be the 2022-23 reality last weekend, when temperatures dipped below 10 degrees. Yet programs like LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) remain underfunded. Congressional funding of $1 billion, contained in the latest spendapalooza – the $1.7 trillion spending bill that staved off a partial government shutdown – will not assure Connecticut residents of the assistance they may need this winter.

Connecticut will receive an additional $20 million, to supplement dribs and drabs of aid money that has been trickling into the LIHEAP coffers since fall. The drabs include $30 million allocated from American Rescue Plan Act funds a month ago.

As Connecticut Republican Senate leader Kevin C. Kelly, of Stratford, noted Nov. 28, “(D)emand is up with application submissions up 17.4% from the same time last year, and home heating prices are rising.” Perhaps Democrats in Congress and the state legislature haven’t noticed that the cost of home heating oil, used by about 40% of Connecticut residents to heat their homes, has spiked in the past year. In late December 2021, a gallon of home heating oil cost about $3.30; today, $4.47. These statistics alone militate for strong funding of this need.

“Senate and House Republican legislators in Connecticut proposed increasing LIHEAP funds by an additional $112.3 million to accommodate increased demand, and expand benefits to more working and middle-class families expected to struggle to heat their homes this winter,” Sen. Kelly said Nov. 28. Democrats who control state government’s purse weren’t buying.

As the Connecticut Mirror reported Dec. 23, “(E)ven with (the Dec. 23) announcement by the Lamont administration that needy families could seek a fourth, $430 crisis payment – and potentially receive up to $2,320 in total this winter – that remains well below the $2,980 peak relief level granted two years ago.” What’s more, “(H)eating oil prices were much more favorable heading into the past two winters than they are now.”

We all can hope for unexpectedly warm temperatures, but the state and federal governments’ failure to fund LIHEAP properly has potential to have deadly consequences, as oil tanks run dry during the coldest time of the year.