Posted on 03/11/2013 5:16:57 PM PDT by jazusamo
WASHINGTON – Dead people don’t need cell phones.
That’s the message Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas wants to send Congress, after he says a controversial government-backed program that helps provide phones to low-income Americans ended up sending mobiles to the dead relatives of his constituents. Griffin has introduced a bill that targets the phone hand-out program, which has ballooned into a fiscal headache for the government.
“This program demands reform,” Griffin told FoxNews.com on Monday. “There is a lot of waste in it and we need to be asking ourselves, ‘Where do we draw the line? Do we give everybody an iPad next? A computer? Is that the role the federal government should be playing?’”
Griffin said the story of dead relatives receiving cell phones was relayed to him by constituents. He added: “I’ve also gotten calls from people who say their employees were bragging about having 10 phones.”
The program in question provides limited phone service to people on government assistance. Ideally, Griffin says he would like to get rid of the program created in the mid-80s altogether, but he knows he lacks the support to kill it -- and instead is asking Congress to scale it back. Griffin’s plan would get rid of cell phones and provide only landline service and phones.
Started in 1985, Lifeline program was created to make sure people with low income levels weren’t cut off from emergency services, job searches or communication with family members. The program is funded by charges that appear on monthly bills of every wireless and landline phone customer in the country. The money goes into a Universal Service Fund that pulls its revenues from fees that show up on most telephone bills as the “federal universal service charge.” The fees range but can go to $3.22 a month.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
>>Dead people don’t need cell phones.<<
Anti-deadist bias! If you can vote (D) you get a phone!
Exactly, how else would the (D)ead know who to vote for. :-)
Fund what? Why? No one funds my stuff? Incredibly stupid idea. Just pathetic.
Dead Get Free Obamaphones.
Film at 11.
Agree. A land line would serve the purpose of the “free” cellular phones by giving “folks” access to emergency services. Also, folks can save money by not feeling it necessary to add phone time for extra talk and chat.
I qualify but its useless for me as I’m deaf.
I get free IM service with my Internet connection. And I can place phone calls for free if the need should arise.
Here is the Indiana link. Perhaps it will help you if in your state.
http://www.hearindiana.org/Default.aspx?pageId=84309
Amen to that.
I’m still alive and statistically have another 30 years or so in me. Why don’t I get a free phone???
What? People in America still work for things? That’s not America?
I have a captioned phone. But since one longer needs phone service to qualify for the Internet plan - I’ve concluded the data line is sufficient for me.
And today I can place a phone call from my computer, making a phone redundant.
Thanks for posting this. Rep. Griffin is right. This program should not be used to fund cell phones. One land line per family, period. That’s the way it was originally set up and that’s the way it should be.
I’m a volunteer triage interviewer at a local food/clothing/utility help bank. Many of the folks I interview have obamaphones. The abuse is rampant. One woman bragged that she’d gotten a phone for each of her six kids. That’s SEVEN phones we’re paying for just one family. I could go on, but won’t.
Thanks for verifying what I’ve read in numerous articles besides this one about the abuses in this program.
Sadly many in our society have gotten to the point they figure they’re owed a living and think nothing of abusing programs that are there for those that are really in need.
Why not? They were promised a free cell phone in return for their votes for obama.
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