MACHIAS, Maine — Poverty, high oil prices, limited fuel assistance and a cold winter could converge to create a long winter of discontent for low-income residents of Washington County.
Maine’s easternmost county has a poverty rate of 19.4 percent — nearly one person in five living below the federal poverty level. That’s the highest rate in the state and nearly twice the rate of the three counties surrounding Portland — Cumberland, Sagadahoc and York. Like Washington County, 11 of Maine’s 16 counties have poverty rates that exceed the state average of 14.8 percent.
An estimated 80 percent of Maine’s homes are heated during winter with No. 2 fuel oil. Prices peaked in Maine last November at $3.92 per gallon. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has predicted that the average price nationally during the upcoming heating months will be $3.77 a gallon. That’s already lower than the current $3.79 a gallon in the Washington County community of Eastport, even weeks before cold weather sets in.
According to the Governor’s Energy Office in Augusta, the average heating oil price statewide was $3.56 a gallon at the end of last week, with the highest prices found in Washington County and parts of northern Maine. That office also notes that heating oil prices in Maine are tracking with crude oil prices. Crude oil that was selling for $79 a barrel in June was selling Monday for $99.33, with growing political unrest in the Mideast and Africa fanning concerns that the price of crude will continue to climb.
While those who qualify can receive some government assistance in keeping their homes habitable during winter, revenue for such programs has been capped at last year’s funding levels. Funding for the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is expected to remain at $3.47 billion. National participation in programs funded by LIHEAP has increased by 54 percent since 2008. Some 8.9 million households relied on the program during the 2011-12 heating season, including more than 6,000 households in Maine’s Washington and Hancock counties. The average benefit of $536 is not expected to increase during the upcoming 2012-13 heating season.
Therein lies the rub, says Susan Farley, an Ellsworth-based family assistance advocate with the Washington Hancock Community Agency. At current prices, $536 will buy 140 gallons of fuel oil, enough to last two weeks “if you’re lucky,” she says.
“The only thing that saved us last year is that it was a fairly mild winter, otherwise it would have been the perfect storm,” Farley said Monday. “We were working with $5 million less than we were the year before. It’s insane how many people we now have coming to our door, and these are people who are elderly, disabled or unemployed, not people looking to take advantage of the system.
“These elderly people are people who hate to ask for help, but they’ve hit rock bottom. In some cases they are people who used to donate money to our fuel assistance program, and now they need assistance themselves so that they are not choosing between medications, putting food on the table or getting fuel.”
Given the $4-plus prices of diesel and gasoline, many of the companies that sell fuel oil will not deliver fewer than 100 gallons. That’s a problem for people who don’t qualify for enough subsidy to buy the minimum order. Farley said they either have to come up with the difference between their subsidy and the amount owed or rely on some other solution. Sometimes, she says, their Plan B involves supplying heat with electric space heaters, as the county’s electrical utility provider — Bangor Hydro Electric Company — is precluded by law from cutting service during winter months to households delinquent on their electric bills.
“They know they can’t lose their electricity, at least not until April 15,” Farley said. “I’m seeing families with electric bills of $3,000-$6,000 by the end of the winter. They have good intentions of paying that off, but, even if they work out a payment plan, they’re looking at monthly payments of $250.”
Farley said funding for the agency’s home weatherization program has endured drastic cuts.
“Three years ago we did 554 homes,” she said. “Last year we did 220. This year we can do 35, and this is in an area like Washington County, where the housing stock is old. We’re not talking about caulking around the windows; we’re talking about insulation. This is not ‘winterization,’ it’s ‘weatherization,’ and, where we once had six crews working full-time, we now have one.”
Farley admits her high-energy enthusiasm for helping those who can’t make ends meet belies the potentially harsh challenges her clients are confronting.
“We ran out of money four times last year, in a mild winter,” she said. “I’m afraid that it could be a very long winter.”
Where are all the Dems that take care of the poor.
Talk to the reps who control congress and want to cut the budget more. Talk to lepage – is he going to offer assistance ?
They are out working to support Lepage and the rest of his family.
At the moment it seems that the Republican Party has control of the Governors office and both houses in the state legislature. They have been doing their utmost to cut funding for everyone and thing except for the wealthy.
Do you recall(either last winter or prior to the previous one) the Governor saying that nobody was going to freeze to death on his watch? I think that I quoted him correctly, but if I didn’t I’m sure that someone here will correct me. He was speaking of the dearth of Federal LIHEAP funds that were available at the time.
No dems. They all voted for kevin.
The “poor” are “taking care” of US! .”.sublivable wages, yet high productivity. Why do we accept our largest employer to employ an enormous class of “working poor”?
Rather ironic that Washington County voted solid Republican Party in the 2010 elections.
Think it could be because they were already in poverty ? Maybe try something different.
Tinkle Down economics
Considering the preceding 8 years were Democrat governed, and we were just as bad off then….so…
Because there is actually some hard working folks in Washington CTY…. Then you have the folks that can work, dont work and basically bilk the welfare system..
Ironic that President Obama ordered cuts to LIHEAP of about 50% last year, but was able to give Pakistan an extra $Billion on top of the $2 Billion they already got.
If it was not for the Big oil company’s lining the pockets of Congress and Senator’s Washington DC the price would go down. But when we put greedee people in Washington this is what happens. $4.09 a gallon. Kick them all out and start over fresh and only let them stay in there one term instead of a career like Snow and Collins have done. Promise us the world and give us a two holer outhouse.Then tell us things are going well
The price would not go down, take a look at the price of oil around the world, most places (seeing as how they use the metric system) pay by the liter, and their price per liter is much higher than what we are paying now per gallon. If big oil were to lose their government connections they would lose their subsidies and the price of gas would skyrocket, crippling our economy. Everything would be at a stand still and the price of everything would increase dramatically. The real problem is that oil producing countries control the supply and can exert control over their stocks, we have no control over that.
Talk to the Repubs in house. They demanded cuts and now they love to blame POTUS
I have never been to Washington County. There is suppose to be alot of poverty and needy families in that county. . I guess that means no one heard fireworks going off this past summer in Washington County because poor people were saving any loose change they had to help buy heating oil.
yeah… I’m sure the tattoo parlors took a big hit too
Don’t come. It’s too noisy!
Washington county has a poverty rate of just under 20%, that would mean that just over 80% are not under the poverty line. (Stay with me here, I know the math is difficult)
So no community with poor residents should host fireworks? …makes no sense at all. All of the snarky swipes at what little the poor DO have; how “underserving” they are — idiotic.
Productivity of workers are historically high, though their wages continue to fall, fall…. WE pick up the tab, as the social safety net is, increasingly, subsidizing the labor costs of Wal-Mart.
All you can do is lash out at those who, last I checked, were NOT running the world!
Its a fireworks fetish thing..:)
I think he’s saying that people who need help with their oil in the winter likely balance that need with the desire to spend $100+ on fireworks…or should.
What $100? If someone is eligible for food stamps, or heating assistance, or anything else for that matter – then they are eligible; period. Their benefit does not change regardless of how they spend the income they have, and it is none of our business!
Take the mortgage interest credit? How would you like ME to “audit” YOU? …use our public roads lately? …maybe a public school, student loan, Medicare, an airport,
Americans work more paid hours than any country on Earth — yet the wage base must be supplemented by degrading “programs” that burden the REAL “productive class” with your scorn.
Fact is, we spend more per capita on the precious “middle class” than the poor ; the poor spend more of their income on taxes; those who have become rich have seen their taxes fall while they demand ever more corporate welfare….
….and YOU are blaming the POOR? .
I knew I’d get someone’s knickers in a bunch. Oh well.
Your point that, if they are eligible, they are “eligible period” is well taken…I agree. That’s why I believe eligibility criteria should be regularly reviewed. And I believe that how they spend their money, when they take PA, should be the government’s business. I know the government wants all sorts of information when you apply. And I honestly believe that if you take The Man’s money, it does and should come with strings.
I encourage anyone to audit me, frankly. I do use our public roads and schools. I pay for them with my considerable property taxes. I did receive a student loan, which I am repaying–with interest…a very good deal for our government. I don’t use the mortgage interest credit, but I expect to. Whether *that* should continue is open for debate.
I actually believe we should do more for the poor, and that is a conversation that everyone needs to have. A robust, reliable, and closed-ended safety net is vital to a stable society, and I’m glad that my taxes go to providing one. But please don’t expect that I will do more for an able-bodied adult than he/she is willing to do for him/herself.
People who turn to the social safety net lay bare their financial lives. We know what resources they have, and are free to spend them as they wish — they get no more or less from the government. You have no more right to scan their grocery cart; to delve into what small treats they may indulge any more an you do mine. These people ARE taxpayers. Most of them work (probably at a poverty level job “created” by Mitt Romney at Staples, and subsidized by the government.)
You likely take more from the government than those you disparage; and are no more “entitled”.
I know exactly how the safety net works. I am hardly disparaging people who turn to it, and *I*, despite my contribution to society and government, do not consider myself “entitled”…nor have I said so.
Actually the outah statahs brought some fire works in……So there was a free show…
We get it – you don’t like poor people or fireworks. Stop the never ending whine filled posts about it and go write a letter to Lepage and complain.
I live on Social Security Disability, for which I qualified under multiple sections because of multiple health problems. I am moving next month, giving up my house because I can no longer afford to heat it. I have found a rental with utilities included. At least this way, I have a fixed budget for the winter which is hundreds lower than last winter.
I think oil will hit in excess of $4.00 per gallon as gasoline is now $4.09/gal. One hundred and fifty gallons which not go all that far in the dead of winter will cost more than the rent I will be paying. My husband has passed away and my daughter is out on her own, so there is only my son and me left at home. Last winter the thermostat was never over 60 and we filled in with electric heaters. We don’t use Bangor Hydro, but at the moment I think it is still less to keep space heaters in two rooms and pay the electric, than to try and actually warm the house with the central oil heat.
Kudos for you controlling your own destiny! You are truly an inspiration. You have a keen survival instinct and will be just fine.
Its the ones that are honestly poor that suffer. Then you have the ones bilking the system, have their ATVS, snowmobiles, jetskis etc.Dont work, get welfare, SS Disability ETC…… They get every hand out possible and can work…Sad that the ones that really need the help cant get it.
Almost 30 years ago I was called to make a late delivery to a house in Topsfield. They had an outside tank and were totally out of kerosene. When I got done filling it up a man came out of the house and said to me that he didn’t realize they were low until it ran out when he was filling his skidder. This was a LIHEAP delivery.
Stop blaming the victim! lol
Look at it from his perspective. Rich People have money, they’re warm, and they can afford to keep my house warm: they’ve got it, I “need” it, and so does my [skidder/tractor/utility vehicle]. That’s how it works.
The irony in that was that I was having a hard time heating my house and paying out of pocket for all my oil while these people were obviously ripping the system off. I told the employer what occured and they just shrugged their shoulder.
And we shouldn’t forget that mobile homes and other houses with outside oil tanks can not even use #2 heating oil. They need to use either a mixed fuel or kerosene which is even more expensive.
Or insulate the tank, a one time expense.
Try being a working poor head of household and find the capital expenditure for this “one time expense” . Surely the poor are aware of long term savings but that option is simply unavailable. ..a terrible feeling of being trapped, when there just is no relief available to you. While the upper classes garner tax credits for doing thosemthingsnthat save them in the long run? We can’t create solutions for others as well?
“Example of Fraud” The GAO report June 2010 shows a 8% rate of fraud in the State of Pennsylvania. 434,000 people received LIHEAP funds of that 34,000 were fraudulent. Major problem with program was States not verifying information on the applications.
Nobody’s got a god given right to oil and gasoline. It’s just going to keep climbing. If the economy recovers, it’ll climb even faster. There’s no time like the present to fix things.
Right now, pellet stoves can heat a place for just over half the fuel cost of oil. I just saw cheap pellet stoves at Marden’s for $1000 each, which means pellets and the stove to burn them would be cheaper than just the oil cost alone for most houses. Personally, I like a wood stove better, because it will burn almost anything, some of which is free, which is a price most can afford.
And we need weatherization. Much of it can be done by a homeowner, and the rest pays for itself in a few years. Put weatherization and a different fuel together and we can cut the cost of heating these places by two thirds. We just need to get people to understand that 1) they need to control moisture first and 2) air-sealing and insulation are two different things. In the article, Farley talks about insulation, but that’s probably just BDN failing to get this point yet again.
Is the space around the chimney in the attic sealed so air isn’t running up out of the house? (Use sheet metal and high temperature caulk anywhere that has any risk of overheating from the chimney.) Are there open holes from where the plumbers and electricians have been careless? Are there open wall tops in balloon framed houses? Close them up! Is the basement insulated? Two inches thick of professionally installed spray foam on the insides of the basement walls will pay for itself in less than two years at current oil prices. It could take four years if you heat with pellets.
And for dog’s sake, if you have a dirt basement or crawl space, cover it up with plastic everywhere. Seal the plastic to the walls. Overlap seams and tape them. If you have a damp concrete basement do the same thing. If you think you have a dry concrete basement, paint it all to make sure there’s no moisture coming up off it. Moisture trapped in a tight house will rot the building and give you asthma.
Of course I ran into one carpenter/comedian that said he had a plan for economic revitalization in the state of Maine: Arson. All we have to do is make sure people have fire insurance, then burn their houses down. The new house will be way more energy efficient than the old one, saving on fuel bills and keeping that money in-state. The construction industry will thrive, and the homeowners won’t be going bankrupt because of heat bills. I see his point, but wish we could find a different financing system.
But the article is about poor people. I hate to say it, but these people are S.O.L., pretty much no matter who’s in charge. It’d help if we didn’t have the GOP in charge of the House, shooting down anything that might be a success for Obama and America, just to make him look bad.
I agree with all your weatherization points. But they would be pretty difficult for someone to tackle who can’t afford heating oil…
I do actually think people who are desperately poor have the right to heating oil. The right to not freeze to death. Most of the suffering elders have worked and paid taxes their entire lives, and are trying to get by on impossibly low Social Security benefits.
If you can’t afford heating oil, you can’t afford to waste oil. If you can’t afford to heat your house, you need make it affordable. Change fuels. Weatherize. Share space and expense with someone else. Don’t cling to what doesn’t work and insist that you have a right to a specific resource that whose production is at a plateau while the population continues to rise.
Burning oil and coal are causing massive climate change, stronger storms, droughts, floods, famines, and extinctions, so nobody has the right to oil. The right to dignity and consideration, yes, but not the right to oil.
Weatherization may be difficult, but the status quo is impossible. Pick one.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong” HL Mencken
Your solutions ALL require capital. …living wages too.
Living wages would be great. I’m all for them. Meanwhile, lets not let people freeze to death waiting for them, because I know how heat flows more than how to rebuild the downeast economy. No, my solutions aren’t perfect and won’t save the world. But they’re better than freezing to death, and cheaper than the alternative of paying for oil. The hurdle is financing.
Say I was a selectman with a fund for the destitute, or a minister with a discretionary fund. Two people come to me. One says “give me $390 so I can buy 100 gallons of oil, which will last me three weeks, after which I’ll come begging for more.” The other says, “help me find an old wood stove and stovepipe to safely hook it to my chimney so I can burn brush and standing dead wood I cut myself. Help me find community resources (other than cash strapped WHCA) that can help me tighten up my house. Do this and I’ll learn how its done and donate time to help someone else do the same.” Which one am I able to help more?
Say my cousin or my neighbor comes to me and asks the same thing. I may not have money to give him, but I have an old working woodstove and some stove pipe in the shed. I’ve got a caulk gun and I’d be willing to buy a few tubes of caulk for him. I’ll help him find bubble wrap he can stick to the windows with a spritz of water to increase their R-value. I’ve got some sheet metal we could seal around his chimney with. I’ll help him look for basement and attic leaks.
So no, my solutions don’t necessarily require personal financial capital. They do help redefine what “living wage”means, because they reduce living expenses. They build community. They increase local resilience. What they require is initiative and determination and imagination to solve problems and adapt to real conditions, rather than whining that you want to see more money changing hands.
One of my favorite books is “Radical Homemakers” by Shannon Hayes which is all about individual and community initiative to lower living expenses and build resources just as you describe. You are preaching to the choir there. I believe, however, that there are limitations and favor a strong social safety net — that includes heating assistance AND steps toward more affordable ways to live.
That said, we can walk and chew gum at the same time: as we redefine livable wages downward, it will NOT satisfy the greed of those who demand cheap labor. Let’s demand wages that are livable for everyone; not just those of us who have land to grow gardens, tools to make improvements and strong backs to pile wood etc.
If they are that poor then they have no “right” to be living in a hard to heat single family home. Time to move into an apartment.
I have to commend raysgirl who posted on here for facing reality and doing the intelligent thing.
That “hard to heat” single family home may be all they have to “live in”. Take an apartment while paying your mortgage? Oh, sell? No one is buying. We give generous tax credits to those who make improvements on their own. Why is that acceptable? The poor are citizens to the same degree…..
How about, LIVING WAGES so people can do these things! $1000? Might as well be a million for many. Do they have cheap chimneys at Marden’s too?
I am neither Republican Nor Democrat. Republicans want “business friendly” desperation in the workforce ; Democrats want programs to ease that just a bit, but no one talks about an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work! Americans work more hours per capita than any other citizen on Earth AND are the most productive! Yet the share of national wealth going to wages is at an all time low?
“It isn’t about jobs. Slaves had jobs. The issue is wages.” Jim Hightower
I’m glad you’re not a Democrat. We prefer cool heads looking for solutions rather than hot heads looking for excuses.
FYI, many pellet stoves can be installed direct-vent, with no chimney.
Democrats let corporate welfare queens run our country into the ground then condescend to those thrown into “working poverty” with lots of programs.
Living wages are what personal responsibility looks like. ….and would afford that exhausted checker at the local Wal Mart a safe new pellet stove.
I would NOT advocate shredding the social safety net and blaming the poor and elderly for their own hypothermia.
Borrowing billions from China for what?? Where is Susan Collins now?? This LIHEAP situation is a travesty. It is time we took care of our people, and begin to turn inward to We The People.
Isn’t it hillarious how the libbers wanted to
hang Bush when the price of oil and gas went up?
It was HIS fault…remember? Our community
organizer has done everything in his power to
stifle oil production, told us to inflate our tires
and wanted a cap and trade deal that HE TOLD
us would dramatically increase prices and we would
be paying a lot more for electricity, heat..etc. And his
sheep don’t say a word. I guess Bush is doing this for his
oil buddies now too? Isn’t it time the sheep see the wolf
and actually lay blame on Obama’s shoulders? Better yet…
go run and buy a chevy volt…it will help the poor get more
heating assistance. WAIT! It’s the repub fault now. Bush too.
We wanted to hang Bush long before that.
Actually, if you are middle class, and able to afford a $40,000 electric car, the government will spot you $8000. The poor need not apply ….
You can thank Gov. LePage and the republicans for cutting assistance to Maine families while at the same time giving tax breaks to the rich. -RealMainer
You are not a real Mainer ! A real Mainer would know better than to write something as stupid as you just did,and that’s just the facts..
Now I know that your a republican! You’ve got your facts wrong and now your lying calling me an outsider. Sir I go back 13 generations in Maine and have done more for this great state than you ever will.
This is GOP doctrine folks. Either you are working for their profits or they want you to die a cold, hungry, sick, lonely death. It ‘s the GOP way.
I make a tad over minimum wage.
Back in June, when the working poor and the poor were setting off fireworks,buying booze,pot, i went to Bobs Cash oil in Madison and bought enough oil to last thu February. To budget that heating oil, for the next 6 weeks, June into July,i did nothing but work. I spent no money on vices nor clothes nor fireworks. I now will be warm til at least February,maybe into March.
That is called ‘ deferred gratification”. GOOGLE IT,. LEARN IT. That way you dont have to freeze and beg
Could you go door-to-door and remind people in their 70s, 80s, and 90s to stop being so doggone shiftless–imagine, thinking they could retire!–and get to work, or else freeze to death?
Can I video what they say to you?
Did you enter a “Pre Buy” arrangement or did you fill the tank and hope that lasts through February?
yeah i did the same thing. ha, paid $3.22 gallon too. then i spent the rest of the summer cutting, splitting and stacking firewood while everyone else was frigging off. It gets cold every winter people when will you figure that out.
Yes this is sad that we cannot even take care of our own here. There are a lot of good people that sometimes need help and what good is being an American if we cannot help out and keep each other warm?
These elderly people at rock-bottom, who can’t afford heating oil, are the ones Republicans are outraged at because they “don’t pay taxes.”
Republicans insist that unless such desperately poor people are forced to pay income tax (they already pay sales tax and excise tax and many also pay property tax), they won’t have “skin in the game.”
Guess what? They already have “skin in the game.” Cold, shivering skin, come winter.
Do you really think any politician will be cold this winter?
Ronald Reagan boasted in 1986 that “millions of the working poor will be removed from the tax rolls”. They do pay taxes of course.
Burn wood, it warms you twice. Once when you are working it up and stacking it, and once when you are burning it. The only heat assistance in this state should be when someone helps you split and stack your wood.
i put a woodstove in 4 years ago. now i burn one tank of oil a year for DHW.
You brought me back to a time when we were living in a rental house and their insurance company would not allow us to burn wood. Never mind the cost of a woodstove…. Lining a chimney….. If you don’t own land where are you to get wood? Without a truck? This is the sort of capital intensive solution many poor people would like to have but don’t. Better to help them change to a better system than pouring oil into old drafty houses.
Not our fault you were stupid when you signed the rental agreement for a house you couldn’t heat with local resources. Not our fault you can’t figure out how to haul wood with a trailer behind a 4 cylinder car. (I do it.) This state is covered in trees and people cut them down for lots of reasons. Not our fault you don’t have the personal skills to network and find those resources.
Are you advocating that the poor go out and cut trees on someone else’s land? With WHAT trailer? Many elderly either don’t own cars or cannot drive.
Is it your fault? …..for the growing poverty rate, even in light of growing worker productivity. We put in more hours than any other people on Earth, but too many of the fruits of that labor are going to those who own the means of production.
There are MANY public policy reasons for this — this is hardly a “free market” phenomenon. Personal responsibility includes civic responsibility. We cannot govern ourselves via our own individual choices alone.
I am now fortunate. I have not forgotten how expensive it is to live when one is poor — no matter how “personally responsible”
Those who have never come Downeast need to take a trip. Alot of us work 2 or 3 jobs to support ourselves and our families while others in the state ( all over the state) ride around in brand new cars and pop out children every 3 years and then we pay all medical expense and food and shelter. I don’t have tattoo’s or drink or smoke now because i have had to give it up. Not all of us in Washington County line up for free handouts. There needs to be a law for people that if they can’t support themselves they need to stop producing mouths to feed and clothe!
The agency’s home weatherization program is a farce. They whine about cuts in funding and claim they can only do 35 homes this year. Solution? Cut the number of employees! Stop buying fancy, state of the art equipment that private businesses can’t even afford! They have way too large a staff and the worst, most disorganized leadership in Maine. They claim to help the poor but don’t weatherize “marginal” properties (i.e. really old houses). They are selective about who gets weatherization, with their own families and friends first on the list. This is one agency that needs a watch dog, preferably a pit bull.
The agency’s weatherization program is carried out by private businesses very happy to fulfill those contracts.
The heat is on
on the street
inside your head on ev’ry beat
.And the beat’s alive deep inside
the pressure’s high
just to stay alive’
cos the heat is on.
We have heated exclusively with wood (one wood stove) after my furnace died three years ago and I have been unable to replace it. A couple pointers for getting through the worst of winter:
*Make sure the foundation is sealed with plastic and if possible, another insulator. Bags filled with leaves cost very little to assemble but have the ability to keep the cellar pipes from freezing for all but the very most severe cold.
*Put up blankets or close doors to limit the amount of space that is heated within a home. Heat only that space to a comfortable level and spend the bulk of your time there. That means close off the upstairs, etc. If necessary one can move closer to the heat source to sleep.
*If you have a furnace or other source of heat, turn it WAY down at night! Pile up the blankets. Extra blankets of very good quality can be purchased for pennies on the dollar at Goodwill and other thrift stores.
*If you are gone from your house for most of the day, turn the heat WAY down. 55 degrees will prevent pipes from freezing but save a ton of fuel.
*Wear wool sweaters and a down vest around the house. Wool socks and insulated slippers for the feet.
*Drink hot beverages throughout the day; sipping a warm drink helps even if the air is chilly.
Unfortunately living in the northeast is tough during coldest part of winter. But there are other measures to get by in lieu of keeping the thermostat at 70 degrees, and by applying these, the effects of the cold are mitigated to a substantial degree (no pun intended).
we will be judged for how we treat the poorest and weakest among us. There is no single answer for this issue,but blaming one party or person for it makes no sense at all there is plenty of blame to go around.We send billions overseas to countries that are certainly not our allies and have done so under the leadership of both parties. cutting just a bit of the fraud and waste at the federal level would heat every home in washington county, I would bet. how much money did we waste persecuting roger clemens ? Michele Obama’s famous vacations anyone?Subsidizing oil exploration in south america,money for finnish car makers?Buying military equipment the military does not want or need?endless war when we could end them quickly,if indeed they are even necessary waged by both parties? Poor,elderly and disabled people get used as a political football every election.both parties should be ashamed.