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"According to President Obama, it is your fault that this woman in today's Philadelphia Inquirer had three children out of wedlock with a father who is M.I.A. and therefore you must pay for her to have a cell phone so she can "find a job and get off of welfare".
"It's nice that Tianna Gaines gets a free cell phone and doesn't have to pay a dime in taxes. I'm sure it will be a ton of motivation for her to find work. Or, wait, why find work to get a cell phone when she's already getting everything else for free?"
But it still hurts. A fair number of recipients like to have their "free" cell in addition to the one they pay for. It hurts my head to think about it too much.
But it still hurts. A fair number of recipients like to have their "free" cell in addition to the one they pay for. It hurts my head to think about it too much.
No way...is it? lol. Then maybe there's a newer version of the bill? Someone said it was on the news channel yesterday.
The current program is a growth of an older program started during the Reagan administration. Subsidized cell phone plans are an expansion of what is known as the Federal Universal Service Fund.
The Universal Service Fund was created during the Reagan years to provide universal telephone network access across the country via subsidized land line service ( yes, the govt. has been subsidizing land line service to the poor for decades. )
The Fund came about as a result of the breakup of the old AT & T and competition among newer carriers for long distance service.
There was the thought that local telephone service rates would increase with the competition for long distance service and would become out of reach to the poor . This all happened prior to cell phones.
The Universal Service Fund is paid for by a federally mandated surcharge on every land line and now cell phone too in the country as directed by the FCC since Reagan.
During the past few years cell phone carriers have lobbied state & federal regulators to permit cell phones to be eligible for universal service subsidies. It obviously provides great revenue to them via the subsidies.
Most states now allow all cell phone carriers to participate in Universal Service Fund subsidies. The decision whether to allow cell phones is left to each state government and not the federal government. I read somewhere that the service costs a cell phone company about $3.00 a month per customer but the subsidy kicks back $ 10.00 to them.
So essentially we have all been paying a charge every month for decades to subsidize land lines to the poor . Now each state can add cellphones to the program if it chooses.
For the cell phone companies this is called " good business', " Capitalism at its best" , etc. They pay very little on their part , pass the bulk of the cost onto John Q Public and take the massive profits and run.
We should all open our phone bills, sit down and carefully read all extra
" charges" that are part of the bill and try to figure out what they all mean. Then work in unison to change the laws. Contact your state & federal representatives and tell them what you think of these plans. Ask them where they stand on the issue- remind them that you vote.
People on social services always seem to have really nice cell phones and to be talking about very important things while loading the shopping cart like money is no object.
Very popular with cell phn companies, supermarkets and agribiz
Well, if you're going to play the 'blame game' then at least play fair. The Lifeline program is a federal program created during President Ronald Regan's administration. It was originally created to provide financial assistance to low income residents so they could receive LAND LINE TELEPHONE SERVICE. It basically gave low income individuals the ability to call 911. However, to blame Reagan for SUBSIDIZED CELL PHONES is ridiculous. When Reagan left office, Motorola phones cost between $2,495 and $3,495. Reagan never approved subsidizing cell phones costing over $2,000 for well-fare recipients. Subsidized phones began with the Lifeline Across America national program which started in 2005.... that was six years after Reagan left office. This may not have been a serious issue in 2005 but the poverty level has increased by 6.4 million people since Obama took office. That is 6.4 million more people eligible for free cell phones paid via us through our phone bills.
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Free Cell Phn Service
