For once, that’s not a joke or a liberal talking point. It’s the results of a study that looked into the impact of energy prices on American families.
Lower-income households are paying nearly a quarter of their income for energy costs. The 27 million lower-income households earning between $10,000 and $30,000, representing 23% of U.S. households, will allocate 23% of their 2011 after-tax income to energy, more than twice the national average of 11%.
Minority households are disproportionately impacted by higher energy costs. In 2009, 62% of Hispanic households and 67% of black households had average annual incomes below $50,000, compared with 46% of white households and 39% of Asian households. Energy costs represent a much larger fraction of disposable income for households earning less than $50,000 than for wealthier families. Due to these income inequalities, the burdens of energy price increases are imposed disproportionately on black and Hispanic households.
Senior citizens living on fixed incomes are particularly vulnerable to energy price increases. Seniors have the highest per capita residential energy consumption among all age categories. The average basic Social Security income of 31.5 million senior households was $15,443 in 2009. The median income of 25.3 million households with a principal householder aged 65 or older was $31,354.
Two points to bring this story home. One, skyrocketing energy prices — which disproportionately impact the poor, minorities and the elderly — are part of President Obama’s plan for “fundamentally transforming” America, as he was kind enough to tell us himself. And two, Republicans are holding voted in Congress today to rein in the EPA, which has become a weapon in the service of Obama’s agenda. One of those votes is on Rep. Fred Upton’s Energy Tax Prevention Act in the House, and the other is on the McConnell amendment in the Senate. So while the president’s agenda is hurting the most vulnerable among us the most, it’s the GOP in both houses of Congress who are trying to stop him.
High energy prices: Poor, minorities hardest hit
For once, that’s not a joke or a liberal talking point.
No, in fact it’s just common-sense logic. It’s also something I consistently bring up to my lefty pals whenever they get gleeful about high energy prices (because they think it’ll usher in an era of alternative energy from fairy dust and unicorn farts). If you want high energy costs it means you want poor to freeze to death in their homes each winter. (Yeah, that’s not exactly fair, but it’s the sort talking point the left uses regularly.)
Bryan, I fear that you overlook the main point. Higher energy prices will help, not hurt, the poor and minorities by bringing them to demand and achieve the even greater dependence on governmental largesse to which they have long been entitled as of right.
Generational dependency is a national treasure. It would be terrible to waste it, so it must be sustained and expanded; no price is too high to pay. Only those who must actually pay for the compulsory largesse (and, of course, for their own energy and stuff created with energy) will be hurt; however, they are of no consequence.
In responses to “save the children and the elderly” Obama and the democrats will rush to pass bills that will provide energy support to those who cannot afford their utility bills. They will also request an additional tax on utility corporations to help pay for it. So our tax dollars (for those poor slob who still pay them) as well as part of our utility bills will be stolen by the government and given to others. Oh but what the heck, it’s for a good cause.
It is very important to supply us with where you got the stats that you used. It is difficult to argue with the left and simply have them come back with, “that’s not true!” without knowing the source of the information.
Thank you.
I’m sorry. I’m and idiot (and also half blind). I did not realize that the underlined word “results” provided the link.
I’m sorry. It seems that I’m an idiot (and half blind) and did not realize the the underlined “results” was a link to the source.
You’re not an idiot. You were betrayed by some self-styled designer type who imagined that overriding your browser’s default formatting for hyperlinks was somehow an improvement.
One of the dumbest things is the phasing out of incandescent bulbs. For a senior in winter, the incandescent lamp is 100% efficient, can be dimmed, lights up immediately and works in a cold garage.
The reason it is 100% efficient is that it heats the house, something desirable in winter, while providing light. Try reading by a gas furnace or a oil heater!
Our gummint is not only controlling, but dumb–a bad combination. Too bad we can’t phase out the gummint instead of incandescent bulbs.
For all the slings and arrows Øbama suffers, he is not a stupid man. By that I mean, he knows what he is doing. If the squeaky wheel gets the grease, than who is going to squeal louder that a stuck pig, than those folks on permanent entitlements when they are getting squeezed? Oh! but we simply must steal MORE of your hard-enraged money, don’t hear the squealing? You just can’t let them roll around suffering like that (God forbid they have to work harder, or even get a first job!). NAY! Øbama knows how to game the system, if he slips his paradigm (falls off the unicorn), he has Frances Fox Piven, George Soros, and Cass Sunstein/Samantha Powell to correct his ideology. For total dependancy on Government is the cornerstone of Marxism. “You are enslaved to the degree you are dependent on government” T. Jefferson.