THE INTERNATIONAL FORECASTER editor Bob Chapman writes: The United States Congress cut 50% from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias stepped in to help the poor, which our Congress refused to do ... they had to pour billions more down the rat hole known as Iraq.

In December, the average cost of a gallon of heating oil was US$2.44 ... which was 23% higher than last year’s $1.99 a gallon.

This large rise in prices has left many Americans struggling to make ends meet and it left the poor in a terrible position ... 500,000 poor families had applied for help but, unfortunately, the needed funds were being spent in Iraq.

Annualized heating bills are considerably higher than last year.

In Massachusetts alone there were 134,000 households who qualified for federally funded heating assistance ... our US Congress left America’s most needy out in the cold.

President Chavez stepped in and supplied oil at a 40% discount to market. More oil followed to Massachusetts, NYC and to Indians in Maine.

• All told it cost the Venezuelan people a lot of money to do what our government refused to do.

We thought liberals in Congress were idiots ... but the Republicans have outdone them.

http://www.vheadline.com/chapman