Ummmm.....It's already December. I'd say it's not very likely, as most places it's already pretty darned cold.

In response to Peter:That's true. However, luckily the problem is simply a matter of being underfunded vs. unfunded. So, the poor an elderly have a little bit of a window before the money runs out.

Yeah, the problem is this year the price of oil has gone up and the amount for subsidies has gone down. These people are gonna have to move in with friends and family if they want to stay warm.

What? And cut into his family's profits from big oil? Not bloody likely.

The Energy Department estimates heating oil costs will jump about 26 percent this winter. Propane costs will rise about 20 percent. Natural gas customers can expect to pay about 10 percent more. However, Rhode Island is decreasing benefit levels and expects to help about 15 percent fewer households than last year. The state reduced its average primary grant benefit from $475 to $350.

Maine is even worse: Homes there use about 860 gallons a year. At current prices of roughly $3.20 per gallon, state officials predict it will cost an average household about $2,750 for heating oil this winter. Maine’s average fuel aid benefit of $579 will only last most families about a month. Five or six years ago, the average benefit covered about half of the heating season.

This is downright disgraceful. What is it going to take for our government to act, frozen bodies stacking up in the morgue?

This is pitiful. We are not some third world country. We are risking the lives of our poor and elderly if we do not act soon.

In response to corinthians:I can't believe that we don't hear more about this! Why isn't it a lead story?

In response to Kat:It's really sad that anyone, anywhere think that this is going to be adequate.

One month is just about up. The Bush administration better get a move on unless they want old people to start turning up frozen in their homes.

But then again, they didn't do too hot a job cleaning up things in Iraq and Afghanistan either. Not to mention New Orleans. No idea why the Northeast should be any different.

In response to mike:As a nation our performance has been shameful both at home and abroad.

I think that it's so wrong that the government isn't on top of this. For many of these people the subsidy may very well be the difference between life and death.

Here is Cafferty's view on our president's priorities: