As If Paying Your Own Heating Bill Wasn’t Bad Enough…

…Congressman Tierney is “leading the charge” for you to pay your neighbor’s heating bill too.

Congressman John Tierney, D-Mass. along with other members of the New England Congressional Delegation sent a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, urging her to increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to $9 billion in legislation this summer, perhaps a second economic recovery package.

“The residents of northeastern Massachusetts should not have to choose between food and heat. The amount of money we are asking for, to ensure a safe winter for our residents, is the equivalent to what we spend in just three weeks in Iraq. President Bush and his big oil accomplices don’t balk at spending that money; so, I would hope that they would not balk at this life-saving request either,” said Tierney at a press conference. Although the President has actually proposed significant cuts in emergency fuel programs, Tierney believes the changing circumstances will lead to a change in the White House position.

To ease the burden of rising heating costs, Tierney believes it will be necessary to more than triple current funding. More than 6 million New England households rely on assistance to heat their homes, thus the current volatility in the oil market is highly concerning. In Massachusetts more than 177,212 applications for LIHEAP funding were received by the commonwealth’s Department of Housing and Community Development this past winter alone.

If the Democrats in Congress didn’t block offshore oil drilling and drilling in ANWR, this wouldn’t be an issue.

Matt Margolis is co-author (with Mark Noonan) of Caucus of Corruption: The Truth About The New Democratic Majority. He also blogs at The Buffalo Bean. Follow Matt on Twitter.