Free Republic

The Need for a Mandatory National Service Program By Steve Cohen April 2021 Proceedings Vol. 147/4/1,418 COMMENTARY FacebookTwitterRedditEmailShare COMMENTS The United States has a history of big, bold initiatives. Americans as individuals, however, have largely forgotten them. The New Deal is barely taught in school, most students do not understand why the United States fought World War II, and the Apollo space program might be remembered as an okay Tom Hanks film. Yet, big challenges and ideas have been at the core of American exceptionalism—itself a barely-remembered concept—since the founding of the Republic. Today, in the shadow of a devastating...

Lest you thought Obamaphones were mythical, here are some shots I snapped in California yesterday. So now you know... Every time an Obamaphone rings... ¡tu lo compraste: you bought it, suckers!

The cost of mobile phone service has been steadily declining over the past decade, as cellphone companies fiercely compete for business. But customers aren't seeing it in their phone bills, thanks to revenue-hungry federal, state and local governments.

Unless Congress acts, March 1 will trigger a $55 billion-per-year ($45 billion in 2013, as the fiscal cliff deal delayed the cuts for two months) cut in national defense, known as sequestration, which will weaken the United States’s ability to defend itself. But this does not have to happen; Congress should cut other spending to prevent the debilitating cuts to defense. National defense, unlike most other discretionary programs, is a central constitutional duty and today represents only 17 percent of the budget. Yet nearly half of the Congress-mandated sequestration cuts—$492 billion—would come from defense. These across-the-board cuts threaten our...

Charles Rangel is not only known for his various ethics violations, but also for his desire to bring back the military draft. For that purpose, Rangel has introduced H.R. 5741, Universal National Service Act.

Many broadband customers will pay new universal service taxes akin to those on their telephone bills if Congress bows to suggestions from rural legislators... The USF currently collects a fixed percentage of revenues from long-distance, wireless, pay phone and telephone companies so that it can pass on subsidies to low-income customers, high-cost areas, and rural health care providers, schools and libraries. Most companies come up with their share, set for this quarter at 10.2 percent, by charging their customers a fee. The USF should continue to be "industry funded," but the base of contributors should be expanded to "all providers...