Stern interviews Obama supporters.

[scottw]

Originally Posted by buckman

Federal Government Program Pays Out $1.6 Billion to Cover Free Cell Phones for Low-Income Americans | Moneyland | TIME.com

Please tell us more about President Obama's strides in reducing fraud.
He appears to be getting better at multi tasking with each post

Originally Posted by spence
If you diminish the safety net isn't that(social darwinism) precisely what would be happening?


Buckman, without multi billion dollar phone subsidies, old people will croak, children will starve and those with high cheek bones and questionable integrity will never get ahead in life.....

[buckman]

Originally Posted by scottw

Originally Posted by spence
If you diminish the safety net isn't that(social darwinism) precisely what would be happening?


Buckman, without multi billion dollar phone subsidies, old people will croak, children will starve and those with high cheek bones and questionable integrity will never get ahead in life.....

I don't understand how the program works because I'm not as bright as others, but 250 free minutes a month!!!( and who pays when they go over, because shutting the phone off would hurt the safety net) They should only dial 911 and thats it. I think that was the original intent.This has nothing to do with a "safety net". This is our tax dollars going to big corporations and being condoned by people too stupid to figure that out.
(like those motor scooter companies you see on tv. another scam)

Still waiting to hear more about how much money the President has saved us in this program...........some how with all the Presidents hard work we seem to be going backwards on the deficit a wee bit

[spence]

Originally Posted by buckman

This is our tax dollars going to big corporations and being condoned by people too stupid to figure that out.
(like those motor scooter companies you see on tv. another scam)

Still waiting to hear more about how much money the President has saved us in this program...........some how with all the Presidents hard work we seem to be going backwards on the deficit a wee bit

The program isn't funded by Federal tax dollars, its funded by fees. And the run up in 2008 if anything was prompted by the Bush tax cut fueled recession throwing more people into poverty...

Obama's FCC is left trying to clean the mess up.

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Rele...C-312210A1.pdf

If anything you should call these Clinton/Bush phones...

-spence

[scottw]

Originally Posted by spence

The program isn't funded by Federal tax dollars, its funded by fees.
-spence

that's a distinction without a difference...it's a tax, a redistributive tax, call it a "fee", but tell us what we get for the "fee" that we're paying...

[spence]

Originally Posted by scottw

that's a distinction without a difference...it's a tax, a redistributive tax, call it a "fee", but tell us what we get for the "fee" that we're paying...

It was a deal worked with the telecom providers. Lower regulation and work to improve infrastructure to increase competition.

Certainly the objective of Lifeline is to help disadvantaged and disabled people who can't afford phone service stay connected.

But Lifeline only represents less than 20% of the full program, the rest going to rural areas, schools etc...and only reason some of that goes to cell phones is that they're now often cheaper than land lines.

The FCC under Obama is reforming the plan to achieve 200M savings in 2012 and 3B in savings over three years.

I don't have an issue with the program as long as it's monitored for abuse. But the characterization that these are "Obama phones" or this has somehow created a Federal tax liability or government entitlement are just patently false.

-spence

[scottw]

Originally Posted by spence

It was a deal worked with the telecom providers. Lower regulation and work to improve infrastructure to increase competition.

Certainly the objective of Lifeline is to help disadvantaged and disabled people who can't afford phone service stay connected.

But Lifeline only represents less than 20% of the full program, the rest going to rural areas, schools etc...and only reason some of that goes to cell phones is that they're now often cheaper than land lines.

The FCC under Obama is reforming the plan to achieve 200M savings in 2012 and 3B in savings over three years.

I don't have an issue with the program as long as it's monitored for abuse. But the characterization that these are "Obama phones" or this has somehow created a Federal tax liability or government entitlement are just patently false.

-spence

this is pretty funny, you should be on Letterman

[scottw]

Originally Posted by spence

But the characterization that these are "Obama phones" or this has somehow created a Federal tax liability or government entitlement are just patently false.

-spence

this is just precious I can't imagine where anyone ever got the idea that these were "Obama Phones"


"Visit ObamaPhone.net and here's what you see (I suspect they'll make changes soon, if they haven't already, so I took a screenshot):


When you click the link at ObamaPhone.net to apply for a free cell phone, you're redirected to...wait for ....it...FreeGovernmentCellPhones.net. That's right. The same website that decried the "false rumor" and "incorrect term" of The Obama Phone Program has another website, surely desired to attract search engine traffic, that advertises The Obama Phone Program.

Nice.

UPDATE: The website has already been changed! Visit Obamaphone.net now, and you'll get something like a blog with no pictures of Obama, as though they're in the process of dismantling the site."


also from Obamaphone.net

Currently, the government is thinking of providing free wireless internet service to the people under this program instead of old-fashioned land phones. It’ll be a great effort if government includes this service in Lifeline program.

WOW! Obama HighSpeed Internet too!!..this is awesome!!!