CNN's Cafferty: Bush putting the poor out in the cold to fund war Mike Aivaz and Nick Juliano

Published: Tuesday October 23, 2007



del.icio.us

Print This Email This Amid $190 billion Iraq request, 30 million Americans won't be able to heat homes this winter As he prepares to ask for $190 billion to fund the war in Iraq, President Bush refuses to approve an extra half-billion dollars that help one in four American households pay skyrocketing home-heating bills this winter. The debate illustrates what critics say are Bush's out-of-wack spending priorities, after he vetoed a popular measure that would have expanded healthcare available to poor children. "No money for kids' health insurance, no money to help poor families pay their heating bills but President Bush wants $190 billion additional for 2008 for his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," CNN commentator Jack Cafferty said Monday. "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the president's new request means the cost of Iraq war is now approaching $650 billion. I wonder if the Democrats will give him the money." Rising oil prices are creating a "heat or eat" dilemma for families struggling near or below the poverty line. "Parents know that children can freeze to death more quickly than they starve to death, and so most decrease food purchases first to pay for heat," wrote Dr. Deborah A. Frank, director of the Grow Clinic for Children, and Joseph P. Kennedy II, chairman and president of Citizens Energy Corp., in the Boston Globe Sunday. The home heating debate involves grants distributed through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP. The program operates with an annual budget of $2.16 billion -- just $300 million more than when the program started in 1991, as Cafferty notes. The House wants to bump LIHEAP funding to $2.66 billion per year, while the Senate has approved a bill that would maintain its current funding level, which would only cover 16 percent of the 38 million eligible American households, according to Reuters. But even static funding is too much for Bush, who wants to cut the program to $1.78 billion for fiscal year 2008. That's less than 1 percent of the $192 billion he has requested to fund dual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it amounts to about a week's worth of Pentagon war spending, according to CNN. The following video is from CNN's Cafferty File Jack Cafferty, broadcast on October 22, 2007

Advertisements Want a gift card? Participate in a presidential frontrunner survey!



