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• Anonymous

  If the expected cuts in LIHEAP occur, we’re going to find out what kind of leadership we have in Augusta.  The governor is on record as saying “nobody is going to freeze, not on my watch”.

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Davida-Willette/100000655412147 Davida Willette

  i dont trust no one these days not even my next door neighbor . that is what it is coming to

• Anonymous

  One of  the few items I agreed with President Obama on was getting people dependent on LIHEAP off the program.    Maine was given millions of dollars to help Maine families make their homes energy efficient.  Not enough people took advantage of all the wonderful programs Maine had to offer.  I guess the question has to be asked where did all that money go and why didn’t more low income people take advantage of those programs? If they were renters why didn’t their landlords tighten up their homes and apartments?

• Anonymous

  One Word . . . .

  MAINE WOOD PELLETS !

  Well OK, so’s I cain’t count, but I’s knows how tah keep Wharm in tha Wintah!
  Use them Pellets oah sum nice hahdwhood foah yah fiyahwhood.
  Finest kind dontchyahknow.

• Anonymous

  Strangely enough, winter seems to come every single year. They have spring, summer, and fall to prepare. Maybe the earned income credit tax returns that some of these people got, should have been set aside for heat. Of course, the government encouraged them to spend it like a drunken sailor, to “stimulate the economy”.
  Perhaps using your EIC refund to take the family to Florida last May on our nickel, should have been saved to keep warm this winter, instead of counting on us to keep you warm like every other winter. (True story, and I hope they see this). Apparently the free ride has run out.
  I have no problem helping the elderly, and I may not have taken a vacation this year, but I will be warm and cozy this winter. 

• Anonymous

  People would be able to afford their own oil if the wages were not stuck in the early 90′s. But let’s keep kidding ourselves and ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room. The failure of wages to keep pace with inflation thanks to “free” trade. The top 1% have seen their piles of gold explode by 300% since the removal of the import tariffs which practically invited them to move their factories to China. So do not look for any changes in the status quo. Most of the people that I know who get LLHEAP go to work everyday, they just do not make enough to buy their own oil. It sounds like they will have to burn the furniture to stay warm this winter. I recommend Moosehead furniture, it is made of rock maple and gives the most BTUs.

• Anonymous

  Maybe some people can sell their snow mobiles, four wheelers, boats, stop smoking, cut back on the dope, etc.

  The problem is who will get cut from the program. I have a sick feeling that those who know how to play the game the best will still get theirs.

• Anonymous

  The behavior of the current cracker Congress makes it seem as though those Texas bumper stickers from the oil price spike of 1979 – Let The Yankee Bastards Freeze In The Dark – will ring true after all.

• Anonymous

  C’mon now…robbing Peter to pay Paul is pretty much a tradition in Maine by now isn’t it?  Each heating season the CMP bills pile up as well as the mortgage occasionally and the mac-n-cheese boxes, just so we can heat our homes.  Considering that wonderful weatherization program we had access to(nothing better than having a new payment book when one lives week to week, just like cash for clunkers), we should all be as toasty this heating season as a shirt fresh out of the dryer. ;)

• Anonymous

  Not to be one to sit under a rainbow and write a poem, I still have to wonder…what about the children of these people that make the poor decisions?  Are they old enough to understand the lesson that you are hoping to teach their parents or are they just going to wonder why they have to wear mittens inside?

• Anonymous

  Wall street and the greedy among us make money lending money. It costs them money to pay a living wage so people can winterize their homes without borrowing any money. Pay cash, live within your meager means, and cut them off at the knees. Want to get the 1%’s attention? Kick them right in the wallet.

• Anonymous

  Mainers were not GIVEN anything. They were offered low interest loans to winterize. Most Mainers have all they can do to handle their mortgage and a small car payment, let alone another loan. If the wages do  not come up to 2011 instead of the early 90′s, we are all doomed anyway.  Well not the top1%. They are seeing a major boon in their already enormous piles while the rest of us are watching our standard of living sink down to that of the average Chinese laborer, who we just happen to be competing head to head with right now thanks to “free’ trade. They average about $20 a week. How close are you?

• Anonymous

  The people who are hell bent on punishing the 5% of people who are on welfare will look at those kids as collateral damage in the greater cause of putting more money in their pockets. That is all that really matters, isn’t it?

• Anonymous

  You are right in certain aspects of your comment, then were we fooled by our President in regard to helping the average person winterize their homes?  I know in my very socially liberal  neighborhood it has been quite trendy among them to have their homes winterized( some spending $10,00 or more) taking advantage of the low interest loans.  However the average Mainer whom you describe once again getting screwed.  Now the very poor could qualify for one of the programs through PENQUIScap.

• Anonymous

  Sorry. Mittens are cheap, oil is not. Why wait until they are old enough to learn how to play the system like the parents? Perhaps this would be proof enough of unfit parents. Are you an unfit parent if you knowingly bring a child into the world that you knew full well you couldn’t afford even before you decided to make one? Or if you have a 3rd or 4th when you can’t afford the 2 you have?
  If people do not want to willingly take responsibility for their lives and actions, then we are going to have to force them.
  Also, do these people who can’t afford to keep warm have cell phones, televisions, X boxes, maybe even a snowmobile or ATV? Do they smoke or drink? These are luxuries and if they can’t afford to keep warm, then they need to get their priorities in order, like the rest of us do. 

• Anonymous

  The filthy rich and the dirt poor are all set. It is the clean ones caught in the middle that end up getting dirty, as usual.

• Anonymous

  The Tea Party Republicans have cut the heating program so thank Snowe and Collins for forcing poor Mainers to freeze. Notice the 1%ers wont be cold this winter.

• Anonymous

  Haven’t you heard? Here in Maine it is “People Before Politics”. Mr. LePage said so and he wasn’t kidding. He just left out one word. “Rich People Before Politics” is what he meant to say.

• Anonymous

  What is filthy rich, to me in Maine it’s  anyone making $50,00 or more.  People making over $50,00 could do a lot of winterizing, which they did in my neighborhood.

• Anonymous

  That is not true , it was President Obama who proposed that people not be dependent on the federal government for heating oil.  The Reps and Dems went along with  it.

• Anonymous

  A lot of elderly people do not feel that they are cold, hence they freeze to death. Cutting off fuel assistance to people that really need it is unconscionable no matter who they are. That includes the elderly, children and anyone else that needs help. I know many people that are working two or more jobs, and still can’t get ahead. In one of the coldest states in this country, cutting back on fuel is not the right thing for the state to do. There must be other things that can be cut, that don’t mean life or death.

• Anonymous

  The elderly cannot afford to go out and buy a pellet stove, nor do they have the strenth to lug the bags, and pour the pellets into the stove hopper.  Wood stoves are too labor intensive for many elderly.  It is the elderly that will suffer most.  Hoping not too many freeze to death this winter.  If you have elderly family friends or neighbors, please make it a point to check on them regularly this winter to be sure they have adequate warmth.

• Anonymous

  Amen.

• Anonymous

  Every single person who receives LiHeap is eligible for weatherization tasks through Community Action Programs at NO cost. 

• Anonymous

  You mean the self centered people who talk and care only about themselves?  Yeah they already are dirty. 

• Anonymous

  I’m a Democrat and you can thank Barack Obama and congress for this.  If you add up even a small fraction of what congress wastes in just a day you could heat every home in America for one winter.   Those statistics are mind boggling. 

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CJREQLDKO3HWJURFYQ5FINA3SM Donna – AVON

  We tried to apply for “weatherization” but they can’t do anything because we need a new roof.  Tried to get help to repair the roof – nobody can help with that cause they are all volunteers that don’t know how.  So, we are stuck.  We are repairing our roof with our EIC that we will get when we do our taxes.  We did buy a pellet stove with our last years EIC.  Husband worked for 5 months over the last 24 – no work and we had to pay $125 a week in gas for him to work for $9 per hour.  We can’t win for losing.