What are Republicans doing?

Screwing the poor, as usual.

Bangor Daily News:

"With heating oil bills rivaling many mortgage payments, winter is not far from the minds of many Maine residents despite the summer’s warmth. That concern apparently hasn’t reached Washington where many Republicans are content to hold heating assistance hostage to their agenda to allow more oil drilling.

"The need for more money for the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is known and immediate. The benefits of drilling are speculative and years from reality."

Still, Republicans in the Senate have blocked progress on legislation to nearly double LIHEAP funding until there is a debate on energy policy — the fact they didn’t do this when they were in charge of Congress has been lost to the haze of history, along with $2 a gallon gasoline. The centerpiece of that debate has become lifting a moratorium on drilling off the coast of much of the country, which Republicans argue would allow the United States to stop importing oil from the Persian Gulf."