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What We're Up Against: The Obama Phone
Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | June 22, 2012 | Rush Limbaugh

Posted on 06/22/2012 12:49:39 PM PDT by Kaslin

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Peter in Rochester. New York. Great to have you on the program, how are you, sir?

CALLER: Rush, I wanted to give your millions and millions of listeners a heads up as to what we're up against. I'm a doctor in Upstate New York here, and I was seeing a patient in a room and the patient said to me: "Can you hand me my Obama phone?" So I said, "What?"

RUSH: I think I know where you're going here. I think I've heard this, go ahead.

CALLER: Well, I had not heard of that. And so I asked, "What's that?" And he said, "This is a free cell phone for poor people and we get minutes and everything." So that was all the conversation I had with him. But it occurred to me that if these Obama phones are going out all over the country --

RUSH: They are.

CALLER: -- then would it be hard to believe that there's going to be text messages and phone calls and all kinds of things?

RUSH: No. In fact, let me give you a shocking statistic. I read this just this week. Obama has 27 million Facebook friends, followers. Romney has 1.8 million. The Twitter numbers are not as large. But the supremacy by the Obama campaign on those social sites is overwhelming. And with these Obama phones, of course they can send texts out. Absolutely they can. They probably do. But the same thing happens if you follow Obama on Twitter or Facebook. It's not to say that everybody following Obama is a lap dog, eager beaver, can't get enough of Obama, but that's how many people have signed up and there's always varying degrees of interest. Everybody following me on Facebook is rabid, for example, but they're not that way for Obama. We first heard about these Obama phones, I was shocked, just like you are when you discovered it, last year sometime, and I had no idea. And you're right, these people get minutes. It's all paid for. The phone is paid for. The usage is paid for. By us.

CALLER: Around election time I'm wondering what kind of messages are going to be going out, "Meet at such and such a place. Come here get a carton of cigarettes and we'll take you to the polls," blah, blah, blah.

RUSH: I think your imagination is the only boundary limit.

CALLER: (laughing) Oh, God.

RUSH: I do. However they could use this. And that's a good catch. Did you talk to this guy about it at all? Did you just let it drop?

CALLER: No, I let it drop.

RUSH: He asked you to hand him his Obama phone?

CALLER: Yeah, I was talking to him, and in the context of his medical care he was going to need to make a phone call to family. So he asked me to hand him the Obama phone.

RUSH: Let me just tell you. Here are the details of this. There's a website ObamaPhone.net. I'm going to read to you: "The Obama Phone Program. What exactly is the free Obama phone? The free Obama phone is a program that is meant to help the financially unstable who cannot afford access to a cell phone. Communication should not be limited to people in relation to what they are able to afford." They actually call it the Obama phone. And here are some frequently asked questions from the Obama phone website.

How do I Get an Obama Phone?
What is the Obama Phone?
Who Qualifies for an Obama Phone?
Who Pays for the Obama Phone?
Is the Obama Phone Real?

Now, in the "who pays for the Obama phone," in the Obama phone questions: "Lifeline is a government sponsored program, but who is paying for it. Some people claim that the government is using taxpayer's money to run this program, however, the claim is false. Universal Service Fund (USF) which is administers by Federal Communication Commission along the Universal Service Administration Company (USAC), pays for the Lifeline phone assistance program."

So you and I are paying for Obama phones via the charges that are tacked on to our phone bill for the Universal Service Fund. The Al Gore tax, do you remember that tax? It's still on your phone bill. To wire farms for land line phones. We are still paying that tax. And then there's Internet taxes, Internet access for the poor and number of other things. The outfit that administers that is the Universal Service Fund.

If you can decipher your phone bill you pay every month a tax that goes into the Universal Service Fund and that's what's buying Obama phones and providing service for the people who use them. And, of course, it's known who has them. It's known what their numbers are. And they can be mass texted, individually, I would assume. But, look, before you panic, folks, this is not new. This has been out there for years, and Obama is in dire straits. When you hear about this, and you think, "How do we fight this? Oh my gosh."

These are the people that voted for him anyway in large measure.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Folks, this cell phone problem. Government-provided cell phones is not a new program. I don't know how long it's been around, but it's not a new program. Calling them "Obama phones" is new. That's what's new about this. And, of course, that's being done purposely to make the people think that these free phones are coming from Obama's stash, that they're personal gifts from Obama. And, in fact, the Obama phone site looks like Obama's campaign site. It has the logo and all that stuff.

END TRANSCRIPT


TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: snopes
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

I undertand the USC Marching Band has an absolutely killer Obamaphone section...


41 posted on 06/22/2012 2:48:38 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: RoosterRedux
This is incredible...http://obamaphone.net. This really organizes his people!

Did they arrange things so that you have to appear in person somewhere so they can get a look at you before ruling on your eligibility for a phone? (Oh, there's that word again, "eligibility".)

If you owe reparations you might not be eligible.

42 posted on 06/22/2012 2:50:00 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear
"There was a previous program that provide cell phones to the poor but they only dialed 911."

The Obama Phone should have all "0"s on the key pad.

43 posted on 06/22/2012 3:03:14 PM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (let establishment heads explode)
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To: Kaslin

My niece used to work for the public library and she told me about a number of homeless people that were inquiring about how to sign up for one of those “Obama phones”.

A bunch of frigging homeless with cell phones from the taxpayers! For what??


44 posted on 06/22/2012 3:21:48 PM PDT by VanDeKoik (If case you are wondering, I'm STILL supporting Newt.)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear
I strongly object to the phrase "Obama phone" and will be contacting my congress critter because this is government funds being used to campaign which is against the law.

It’s a little unclear who created or owns this website but from the registration it doesn’t appear to be a government website, but I could be wrong:

whois

45 posted on 06/22/2012 3:30:03 PM PDT by MD Expat in PA
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To: Kaslin
I think Rush might have been reading my post last week when I mentioned about the 28 million Facebook friends that Obama has.

Many of us here might scoff at the notion that piling up Facebook friends means anything but we underestimate the power of social media at our own peril. Think about it. The Obama campaign has the ability to instantly hit at least 28 million cell phones with a personal text message.

When Election Day comes around, you can guarantee that those 28 million followers will know damn well that it's Election Day and you can bet that the majority of them are going to come out to vote for their boy. Now I still think that our numbers are much larger but unless we have a similar ability to GOTV, we could feasibly come up short.

46 posted on 06/22/2012 3:30:12 PM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: Kaslin

The Obama phone,,,for Obama Phonies!
That’s about right


47 posted on 06/22/2012 3:43:28 PM PDT by austinaero (Obama or America - can't have both)
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To: Vinnie

IIRC, Manbearpig also cast the tiebreaking vote for it in the Senate.


48 posted on 06/22/2012 3:48:42 PM PDT by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear
ETA

Any cell phone that can still be powered up and hold a charge can be used to dial 9-11, even if the cellular service has been discontinued, i.e. turned off.

I donated several of my old cell phones to the House of Ruth in Baltimore, a shelter for battered women and their children. Of course that was after I cleared off all personal information; stored numbers, call history, saved voicemails, etc. The donated phones, while they can’t be used to make and receive regular calls, can still be used to dial 911 in an emergency. And yes some charities purchase or receive donated minutes.

49 posted on 06/22/2012 3:58:22 PM PDT by MD Expat in PA
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To: biggredd1

I wish someone in the media, say Rush for example, would call for everyone deducting the charge from the phone bill. If millions of people didn’t pay that for a month or two there’s no way they’d stop the service.


50 posted on 06/22/2012 4:01:19 PM PDT by Terry Mross (To My Liberal Kinfolk: Don't call, email or write until you've gotten your brain fixed.)
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To: SamAdams76

And those who come out to vote for their boy will be unregistered without any form of I.D.


51 posted on 06/22/2012 4:07:22 PM PDT by Terry Mross (To My Liberal Kinfolk: Don't call, email or write until you've gotten your brain fixed.)
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To: Biggirl

People getting these phones don’t seem like likely voters to me. They want the stuff but aren’t going to make it to the polls.


52 posted on 06/22/2012 4:07:44 PM PDT by dandiegirl
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To: An American!
Ahole obozo has nothing to do with the free phone program. system. Yet he highjacks this free phone program and puts HIS ahole name on it...obomaphone, to give the impression that HE is responsible for the “free” phone.

This bast*ard is a sociopath liar...lies about EVERYTHING, and the dumb people who have their hand out for anything that's free TO THEM, pick up on obozo’s twisted advertising, and call it the obomaphone. Stupid is as stupid does. Somebody needs to respond to this bull and reveal what the free phone program is about, and how obozo is LYING about his connection to this phone program. We must “disconnect” this obozo any way we can. Romney, Republican Party, whatcha going to do about this?

53 posted on 06/22/2012 5:03:23 PM PDT by itssme
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To: An American!
Ahole obozo has nothing to do with the free phone program. Yet he highjacks this free phone program and puts HIS ahole name on it...obomaphone, to give the impression that HE is responsible for the “free” phone.

This bast*ard is a sociopath liar...lies about EVERYTHING, and the dumb people who have their hand out for anything that's free TO THEM, pick up on obozo’s twisted advertising, and call it the obomaphone. Stupid is as stupid does. Somebody needs to respond to this bull and reveal what the free phone program is about, and how obozo is LYING about his connection to this phone program. We must “disconnect” this obozo any way we can. Romney, Republican Party, whatcha going to do about this?

54 posted on 06/22/2012 5:04:00 PM PDT by itssme
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To: Kaslin
I heard a caller (black female on welfare) on the Boortz show last week refer to her welfare cell phone as her "Obama Phone". It is amazing. A program started in 1996 to provide discounted land-line service for low-income households (by taxing the middle class' phone bills with the Universal Service Fund fee), was expanded to cell phones in the 2000s. But not in the form of a nominal discount, like the land line program, but instead a complete free phone with a monthly minute allotment. The program has grown from $772 million in 2008 to $1.6 billion in 2011.

But what is worse is now welfare queens proudly call their welfare phones "Obama Phones". They may well have had a government cell phone before Obama, but now they think Obama is the reason they have their phone.

I guess next is the EBT card will be called the "Obama card". Obama = Welfare.

55 posted on 06/22/2012 5:44:00 PM PDT by magellan
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To: unique1
"But the program is funded by telecom companies ... "

No, it is funded by telecom company customers, by government mandated fees which the telecom company then hands over to the government. This "FactCheck" BS is like saying Exxon is paying for road construction, not the customers paying the gasoline taxes.

Keepin' it real.

56 posted on 06/22/2012 5:48:51 PM PDT by magellan
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To: Terry Mross
"I wish someone in the media, say Rush for example, would call for everyone deducting the charge from the phone bill. If millions of people didn’t pay that for a month or two there’s no way they’d stop the service."

Dump your landline and go cell only or VOIP for your home phone. That way you get rid of Ma Bell and the USF tax.

57 posted on 06/22/2012 5:52:59 PM PDT by magellan
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To: ProfoundMan

Really, what exactly does the Prez need to inform people of that Cabinet-level officials can’t? Previous Presidents would haqve used the Cabinet or other officials to take care of anything like this. I sincerely believe Obama is surrounded by idiots that don’t realixe he is cheapening his brand, and has been doing so for the past few years. He is overexposed, to put it mildly.


58 posted on 06/22/2012 5:55:56 PM PDT by PghBaldy (I eagerly await the next news about the struggles of Elizabeth Sacheen Littlefeather Warren.)
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Comment #59 Removed by Moderator

To: unique1
But the program is funded by telecom companies, not by taxes, and the president has nothing to do with it.

Its a tax, I don't care who collects it!

60 posted on 06/22/2012 9:41:50 PM PDT by MrPiper
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