Reporter Given 3 Free ObamaPhones

[NCTexan]

National Review Online:

Me and My Obamaphones

 

Confession: You’re paying my phone bill.

 

In the past month, I have received three shiny new cell phones, courtesy of American taxpayers, that should never have fallen into my hands.

 

The Federal Communications Commission oversees the so-called Lifeline program, created in 1984 to make sure impoverished Americans had telephone service available to call their moms, bosses, and 911. In 2008, the FCC expanded the program to offer subsidized cell-phone service, and since then, the expenses of running the program have soared. In 2012, the program’s costs had risen to $2.189 billion, up from $822 million before wireless carriers were included. As of June, there were 13.8 million active Lifeline subscriptions.

 

To be eligible for Lifeline, the applicant is supposed to be receiving some significant government benefit — food stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, public housing assistance, etc.

 

Representatives from SafeLink and Assurance, two of the leading New York Lifeline vendors, stand outside the food-stamp offices, paired like Mormon missionaries, young and polite and earnest. They carry electronic tablets and ask all passersby whether they’ve received their free phone “yet” — as if it were an inevitability.

 

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This is especially infuriating considering the about the we pay every month for our cell phone service.

 

Secondly, it seems like a good number of folks whom I "profile" as diehard Obama supporters are talking their (probably) ObamaPhone 7x24.

[cudjo]

Every time I pay my cell phone bill I wonder why am I paying for this, you can get them free, guess I just don't like the gov being in charge of what I have.