Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Lou Barletta wants more LIHEAP money

The last few press releases I got from Congressman Lou Barletta have me confused. He votes for a Balanced Budget Amendment that would gut what is called discretionary spending ending just about every social program that the federal government funds.

In his response to President Obama's State of the Union address he decried that "Since the president took office, a record number of Americans are receiving food stamps."

Barletta brags that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved the buyouts of residential properties in Plymouth Township, Shickshinny and Benton Township. He proudly announced that local fire companies are recipients of DOH grants. He took credit for $40 million in highway repair funds to fix our roads that were damaged by the summer hurricanes. He announced that the Delaware Water Gap will get 1/2 mil to study traffic. Farmers will get help according to this Barletta press release.

If the Balanced Budget Amendment was passed none of these projects would have happened.

He did get a post office renamed and announced that the Shickshinny Post Office should reopen within 60 days.

Food stamps are bad but warm in the winter is good. Cold and hungry is bad. Warm and hungry is OK.

Rep. Barletta calls on President Obama to increase LIHEAP funding

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, PA-11, again called on President Obama to increase or at least continue at the current level the funding for home heating assistance for veterans and seniors through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
“Many veterans who might be eligible for LIHEAP don’t know they can take advantage of the program, but they absolutely can. We need to help our veterans and seniors stay warm in the winter. We can’t let them slip through the cracks. We need to fund LIHEAP,” Rep. Barletta said. “Many in Northeastern Pennsylvania struggle to pay for their heat. They have to make the difficult choice between paying for food and keeping warm, and that just isn’t acceptable. More and more Americans are hurting, so it’s incredibly important that President Obama keep LIHEAP funded at current levels, if not increase that funding.”
A January 26 letter coauthored by Rep. Barletta and Rep. Edward Markey (D, MA-7) calls on the president to request at least $4.7 billion for LIHEAP in Fiscal Year 2013 (FY13). More than 100 House members – Republicans and Democrats – signed the letter.
Because of the efforts of Rep. Barletta and others in Congress, LIHEAP funding this fiscal year topped $3.4 billion – almost $1 billion more than President Obama had requested for FY12. Of that, almost $210 million is allocated for the Pennsylvania program. [Source: Campaign for Home Energy Assistance]
LIHEAP helps low-income families pay their heating bills through a cash grant sent directly to the utility company or as a crisis grant for households in immediate danger of being without heat.
The number of households with at least one military veteran receiving LIHEAP assistance swelled from 700,000 in FY 2008 to 1.78 million in FY 2011. This is an increase of over 150 percent during the past four years, according to a survey by the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association (NEADA). The bulk of energy aid recipients who served in the military are over 60. Almost half are disabled. Of the veterans who received help, 12 percent served in Iraq and Afghanistan; about seven percent are on active duty.
LIHEAP provided vital heating assistance to 8.9 million households in 2011 – an increase of 54 percent since 2008.

3 comments:

McGruff said...

Misdirecting the food stamp comment I say...

What Barletta is saying is that this President's policies and the Senates failure to pass the 30 job bills has led to record numbers of people who NEED food stamps and still an unemployment figure above the 8% that the President said his stimulus package would stall at.

The Democrats problem with Barletta is that he is fighting for his district and they never believed it would happen. Their paint from their brush has quickly faded away to reality that Barletta is in tune with his constituents and good for his district.

There are some people who dislike Barletta the politician who don't want to believe that and will go out of their way to mispresent the facts.

Obama is bad for America because he is supposed to be above the partisianship he supports. He has busted through every figure that George Bush was assailed with but is treated with kid gloves because the public sent a kid to the White House to do a Man's job.

Anonymous said...

Gort, Just check and see the great job Barletta did in hazleton as mayor. left them a $2.6 million dollar debt!
Barletta nevers represents his people, if he did he NEVER would have voted for Paul Ryans medicare killing legislation.

Anonymous said...

The 30 "jobs bills" that Barletta constantly refers to were nothing more than gutting regulations for corporate polluters, letting Wall Street looters run wild again, and giving more tax breaks to the nameless 'job creators'. No wonder these crazy ideas that Barletta and his Republican colleagues passed never saw the light of day in the Senate. All Barletta does is whine about his bill dying in the Senate - too bad!