The Valley Reporter
P.O. Box 119
Waitsfield, VT 05673
802-496-3928
CONTACT INFORMATION
The Valley Reporter
P.O. Box 119
Waitsfield, VT 05673
802-496-3928
CONTACT INFORMATION
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The news last week that Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and legislative leaders would add $6.1 million to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is heartening.
What is disheartening is how out of touch elected officials in Washington are with average citizens whose fiscal fortunes remain affected by the ongoing economic downturn. Tax cuts remain for millionaires, but federal funds for poor, cold people will be reduced.
There is no questioning the need for LIHEAP funds in Vermont. In addition to higher heating costs this year and tough economic times, winter brings an increase in home fires related to families trying to stay warm.
According to the Northern Vermont Red Cross chapter, disaster teams were sent to help two Vermont families that were victims of fires this week when temperatures dropped below zero. The Red Cross noted that heating fires are the second leading cause of home fires and reported that almost half of American families use alternative heating sources such as space heaters, fireplaces or wood/coal stoves to stay warm, and that that number is higher in Vermont.
Keeping warm must not be as difficult for our elected officials in Washington as it is for the rest of the denizens of the country. Last week the New York Times published an article detailing the rise in the net worth of congressmen/women on Capitol Hill. The article, “Economic Downturn took a detour at Capitol Hill” by Eric Lichtblau, notes that nearly half of all members of Congress (250) are millionaires.
According to the article, the median net worth in Congress is $913,000, compared to the rest of the country where the median net worth is $100,000.
“Largely insulated from the country’s economic downturn since 2008, members of Congress — many of them among the ‘1 percenters’ denounced by Occupy Wall Street protesters — have gotten much richer even as most of the country has become much poorer in the last six years, according to an analysis by the New York Times based on data from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit research group,” Lichtblau wrote.
“What is clear is that members of Congress are getting richer compared not only with the average American worker, but also with other very rich Americans.
While the median net worth of members of Congress jumped 15 percent from 2004 to 2010, the net worth of the richest 10 percent of Americans remained essentially flat. For all Americans, median net worth dropped 8 percent, based on inflation-adjusted data from Moody’s Analytics,” he reported.
With fortunes like those, you’d think lawmakers could help provide heat for the neediest. At least at the state level, elected officials will step up to the plate to do the right thing.
