In a stunning act of either breathtaking cruelty or government-by-chaos (or maybe both?), the Trump administration has just fired the entire staff responsible for administering LIHEAP — the $4.1 billion federal energy assistance program that helps 6.2 million Americans afford heat in the winter and cooling in the summer.
Yes, you read that right. In a country facing longer heatwaves and bitter cold snaps from climate change, the people in charge of making sure low-income families — including seniors and children — don’t freeze to death or overheat in their own homes were just shown the door. All of them.
What efficiency! What visionary leadership!
What a bold new chapter in American exceptionalism — where "reform" apparently means sabotaging programs that Congress already funded because, hey, who needs heating oil in Maine or AC in Texas?
This isn’t small government. It’s governmental malpractice.
It’s one thing to talk about cutting red tape.
It’s another to slash the very people who hold the safety net together and then shrug when it snaps.
Let’s be clear: Without staff, LIHEAP’s remaining $378 million can’t be disbursed. That’s money Congress ordered to be spent — now trapped behind a locked door with no keyholder.
Here’s what’s going to happen if this stands:
- Grandparents in the Midwest will be hospitalized — or worse.
- Children in the South will suffer through heat waves with no relief.
- And the rest of us will be told it’s the price of “efficiency.”
No. This isn’t efficiency. It’s neglect, weaponized through ideology.
As a candidate for Congress, I promise you this: I will fight to restore this funding, this staff, and this basic decency.
Because no American should die for lack of heat or air conditioning in the richest country on Earth.
And to those still cheering this move?
I hope you never have to choose between groceries and a warm house.
Because millions of your fellow Americans just lost the one program that helped them avoid that choice.
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