December 13, 2007 (LPAC)-- The Department of Energy's Energy Information Agency said on Wednesday that the heating cost for the average U.S. household will be $986 this winter, which is an increase of 10.9% from 2006-07. The USA Today notes that more low income and elderly people are applying for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), the federal assistance program to help low income and elderly people to pay their home heating bills, this year. However, President "Leave No Child Unfrozen" Bush has just vetoed the second LIHEAP bill, presented to him by a bi-partisan vote in both houses of Congress, as he also vetoed the first version.

In light of the hyperinflation of the U.S. dollar, like the Reichsmark of Weimar Germany, costs are beginning to soar, while the value of the dollar declines, causing physical economic shock waves (pdf), that are destroying the standard of living at an accelerating rate. The physical effects are illustrated, in the fact that, as Melody Rodriguez of the Central Missouri Community Action told the USA Today, so far, 569 people have applied for assitance this year as opposed to 159 last year; while others are purchasing more wood for their wood stoves.