Heating Aid Hypocrisy

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
January 28, 2003

The debate over how much money to give LIHEAP, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program that keeps poor people warm, reached another crisis last week.

Which is amazing, given that Washington is run by people who sell themselves as ''compassionate'' conservatives.

President George W. Bush got a huge headline for belatedly releasing LIHEAP money, when in fact (1) the Bush administration has been stingy in funding this essential federal relief effort, and (2) the $200 million in emergency funds the President released will run out in only about two weeks.

Maybe Mr. Bush can control the weather, as he does a fawning press. Maybe he figures the poor can take personal responsibility, by cutting their own firewood in the national parks or (the faith-based solution) praying for heat.

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., got a front page picture and a nice quote in the LIHEAP story, hailing the ''good news'' that Mr. Bush sent those who can't pay their heat bills.

But at least Sen. Bunning also was among the overwhelming majority of senators who voted to fund LIHEAP at a $1.7 billion level, not the miserly $1.4 billion Mr. Bush has proposed.

Rep. Anne Northup got to brag, through an aide, that she supports another $300 million for LIHEAP next year, when in fact (1) that simply will keep funding where it is now, without accounting for inflation, and (2) the demonstrated need far exceeds $1.7 billion. In fact, if LIHEAP had been given even modest increases since its peak funding year of 1985, Congress would have had to come up with around $3 billion.

So in real dollars, LIHEAP has been cut over the years. It hasn't been given appropriations close to the authorized funding level of roughly $3 billion.

Even Bill Clinton, when he came into office, at first tried to cut LIHEAP, then backed off. But in 1998, a House Appropriations Committee bill would have, among other things, ''zeroed out'' LIHEAP, stripping it of funds. Rep. Northup voted for this bill.

The same George W. Bush who campaigned on a pledge ''first and foremost'' to fully fund LIHEAP, turned around and asked, in his first budget proposal, for a reduction of at least $555 million from the total available the previous winter.

If he wants to be as good as his word (''compassionate''), the President's 2004 budget message will demand at least $2 billion for LIHEAP, plus $300 million in emergency funds, plus an advance appropriation for 2005.

What's more likely, though, is that he'll keep drying up the money available for people in need by proposing more tax cuts to warm the hearts of the wealthy.