[From the diaries by susanhu with inconsequential edits.]

Just when you think that Bushco can’t sink lower, there appears a new low watermark.  This time it involves foodstamps.


Five states requested increases based upon increased home heating costs.  As a result of energy price increases, low income families will likely be faced with difficult budget choices this winter.

Link

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has denied requests from five states to increase food stamps for low-income families facing higher heating bills this winter.  Maine, New York, Kansas, Virginia and South Carolina sought to raise monthly food stamp allotments by projecting what families will pay to heat their homes. The increases would have ranged from $8 to about $30 a month for families who pay their own utility bills.

The choice will be between heat or food.

Continued below ….

State officials and advocates for the poor said the decision will make it hard for needy families to afford both heat and food. The Energy Department has forecast 25% average increases in heating bills this winter. Research shows that when utility bills rise, some poor families reduce food purchases.

Foodstamp benefits are not reflecting the current dire economic situation.

Robert Greenstein, director of the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said federal food stamp law says benefits should reflect current costs. “It’s effectively cheating low-income families,” he said. If the five states’ requests had been approved, many others would have followed, he said.

But wait, the Agriculture Department has a solution.

Jean Daniel, director of public affairs for the Agriculture Department’s Food and Nutrition Service, said states can seek an increase in food stamps if they document higher utility bills. That way, she said, the government can “make sure that each individual is getting the right benefit amount … not too little, not too much.”

Maybe I’m just a little crazy, but does there really need to be documentation at a time when fuel/energy prices have hit record highs.  But perhaps I’m alone on this, just another bleeding-heart liberal, willing to jump on any old cause.  (Of course, Venezuela did not need documentation when they agreed to assist Massachusetts, but hell, that’s just a rogue nation, right?)  And by the time the costs are documented, families will likely have suffered in the cold or without food for some time.  But we wouldn’t want to help the needy without proper documentation.  In triplicate, of course.

But, hay, what about this?

State officials and advocates for the poor said the decision will make it hard for needy families to afford both heat and food. The Energy Department has forecast 25% average increases in heating bills this winter. Research shows that when utility bills rise, some poor families reduce food purchases.

So is this a case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing?  Couldn’t someone at Agriculture simply call the Energy Department?