TECHNOLOGY Updated February 11, 2013, 9:51 p.m. ET THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Millions Improperly Claimed U.S. Phone Subsidies By SPENCER E. ANTE The U.S. government spent about $2.2 billion last year to provide phones to low-income Americans, but a Wall Street Journal review of the program shows that a large number of those who received the phones haven't proved they are eligible to receive them. Suspecting that many of the new subscribers were ineligible, the Federal Communications Commission tightened the rules last year and required carriers to verify that existing subscribers were eligible. The agency estimated 15% of users would be weeded out, but far more were dropped. A review of five top recipients of Lifeline support conducted by the FCC for the Journal showed that 41% of their more than six million subscribers either couldn't demonstrate their eligibility or didn't respond to requests for certification. The program is open to people who meet federal poverty guidelines or are on food stamps, Medicaid or other assistance programs, and only one Lifeline subscriber is allowed per household. Americans pay an average of $2.50 a month per household to fund a number of subsidized communications programs, including Lifeline. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323511804578296001368122888.html?mod=ITP_pageone_0
so they can find work... like a lot of them EVER work! San Francisco gave old cell phones to homeless people so they could make emergency calls. One of the recipients called 911 thousands of times and tied up the whole system..
I don't care if Jeezus H Christ himself came up with the idea of <s>free</s> tax payer funded phone service for the poor. It was is and always will be a stupid idea we cannot afford.
And obama switched it to cell phones and tripled the cost, so looks like just like with everything else obama does he takes someone elses big spending concept and makes it exponentially worse.
Well, not exponentially, his spending is actually quite subdued. No, for big spending you have to look to the reps. Particularly since they do it while lowering taxes.
Don't be stupid Ricter. Obama took the cell phone spending from $800 million under Bush to $2.2 billion. I'd would say that fits the MSM definition of exponential growth in spending.