Posted on 12/19/2013 7:35:03 AM PST by upchuck
The Federal Communication Commission program, “Lifeline,” subsidizes the wireless service and allows carriers to dispense phones for no cost. Recipients of the free service are considered eligible if they do not earn more than 135 percent of the federal poverty level or if they participate in at least one other federal assistance program such as Medicaid, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) or public housing.
Georgia alone has nearly 800,000 residents which use the service, but a new policy aimed at cracking down at fraud and wasteful spending forces companies to either increase free airtime to 500 hours or charge subscribers the $5 fee, according to the U.S. News & World Report.
“This represents one of the most direct attacks on low-income consumers in recent memory,” said a statement released Thursday by Consumer Action, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Community Action Partnership, and the National Consumers League and the National Grange.
The non-profit Universal Service Administrative Company which administers the program reports that the percentage of low-income households with phone service increased from 80 percent in 1985 to 92 percent last year.
A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report shows that low-income Americans continue to lead the switch to abandon landlines and use only wireless phones.
The CDC survey shows that nearly 55 percent of American adults with income below the poverty line use only mobile phones in their homes – about a 3 percent increase from last year. That compares with only 35 percent of Americans whose income is more than double the poverty line.
The U.S. government pays companies $9.25 a month per customer to offer phone service to the poor.
(Excerpt) Read more at atlanta.cbslocal.com ...
Try walking a 5mi round trip to the grocery only to watch 250#+ EBT mamas sumo wrestle over the last electric cart.
Then when I’m at checkout with my chicken, beans and noodles, they buy the ingredients for one expensive meal, and then as many cases of the cheapest generic canned soda as the cart will get to their car trunk in one trip. Aluminum.
I have often wondered what was wrong with me. Having read your tag line, now I know. This has been a truly eye opening experience for me. There’s a whole new world out there I didn’t know exists.
Thank you!
Wasn’t this scheme introduced for landline phones by Reagan & extended to cell phones by W?
I’m guessing the regime wants to push videos, not just texts.
Need more minutes & bandwidth.
No and yes:
To this day the government provides discounts on landline phones for financially disadvantaged people in the United States and U.S. territories. The Link-Up portion helps with the installation and the Lifeline Assistance part helps with the monthly bills, to the tune of roughly ten dollars a month.
So, the subsidization of phones began under President Clinton, and has continued under Presidents Bush and Obama.
Over that time, the usage of cell phones rose and the costs came down. Assuming one believes in the Lifeline program in the first place, and remembering that the FCC has mandated the program, it only makes sense to expand the phone assistance program to include cell phones. So, in 2008 the first application of this program for mobile phones began when a company called Tracfone started their Safelink Wireless service in Tennessee.
Aha, some say, that’s the same year Obama was elected! Well, that’s true. But the service in Tennessee was launched three months prior to Obama being elected. And that means the discussion and approval of the extension of the program occurred under President Bush’s watch.
The Bush Phone, anyone? Source.
Your math is incorrect: (800,000 users) times (9.95/month) times (12 months) is $95,520,000. WOW, indeed!
However, I question the 800,000 number. According to Wikipedia, the 2012 population of Georgia was 9,919,945. 800,000 seems high.
“I have often wondered what was wrong with me. Having read your tag line, now I know. This has been a truly eye opening experience for me. There’s a whole new world out there I didn’t know exists.
Thank you!”
Don’t thank me. I was diagnosed by the late Willie “choo choo” Green after replying to one of his stupid socialist railroad proclamations. It fit, so I made it my tag line.
Diagnosed by THE Willie Green. A high honor indeed. I’m jealous :)
It might be accurate as to the number of 0bama phone accounts are in GA. It seems that people have no trouble getting several phones.
I reckon that’s possible. Still, that a hell of a lot of taxpayer dollars.
I know this is an old thread but I just had an idea last night. Can we at least make every 10 or 12 Obamaphone recipient share a party line for these things (then sit back and enjoy the fun). I’m sure there is such a strong sense of community that they would cheerfully work together to ensure that everyone gets their fair share of minutes...
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