Garden State Patriot

Here in New Jersey, we have a program called LIHEAP which is aimed at providing poor folks with assistance for their winter heating bills. Just this week, Governor Corzine announced the final distribution for LIHEAP of over $600,000, bringing the grand total for 2008-2009 to a whopping $170M.

Now, for argument’s sake let’s put aside whether the rest of us should be subsidizing the energy bills of the poor. Instead let’s assume that we accept the premise and that none of us want to see our fellow citizens freeze in the winter.

If we were just helping the downtrodden, this program would be acceptable to us. However, we are not merely subsidizing the poor. We are in fact subsidizing people in the middle class. According to the story at NJ.com, households who are 225% above the poverty level are eligible for LIHEAP thanks to the ‘ever-generous with your money’ Corzine.

I looked up the federal poverty levels here. A family of four is considered poor if the household takes in less than $22,050 a year. Multiply that by 225% and you are looking at a total annual income of $49,612.50. Now, certainly a household at that income level is able to, and should, pay their own energy bills.

And there’s more. The NJ.com article states:

Households heated by gas will receive an average of $1,289 per household and those heated by electric will receive an average of $982 per household.  Gas and electric figures include USF benefits.  Households heated by deliverable fuel will receive an average of $1,200 per household.

Now, based on my own experience in heating my home with electrical units, I would guesstimate that a normal bill for a family of four in the winter would be roughly $300 a month. Thus, $1000 in LIHEAP assistance is not really assistance. It is full blown welfare. We are simply paying the bulk of, if not the entire, energy bill for other people in our state who are not just under the poverty levels, but are in fact in the middle class.

And Governor Corzine thinks that when the economy is bad, and many in this state have lost their jobs, that we still owe it to middle class people to do even more in the way of programs like LIHEAP. But if he were honest what he would say that he is doing this for his own desire for power. After all, that is the end result when Democrats like Corzine make as many people depenedent on government as possible. And that is exactly what he has done with LIHEAP.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!