Lifeline Program is the "Obama Phone"
This CNN Money video shows the real story about the so-called “free obama phone” from "the government."
What’s the real deal behind the “free” “Obama Phone”? Think you know? Look again!
“17-million Americans get subsidized phone service through the Lifeline program and the world’s richest man is benefiting.” – CNN money
Almost $2 billion a year now goes from taxpayers to offer “free obama phones?” 17 million phones are now subsidized by tax payers? 4 million Trackphone subscribers are gathered for the benefit of a private company? 100′s of “free phones a day from other cell phone companies are paying private cell phone companies? Don't know that this was a Reagan program - not an “obama phone” program? “Lifeline Program” is a tax-payer funded program that runs through surcharges on people's telephone service bills - it comes from the wallets of paying phone customers without calling it a tax, it's a "surcharge." But is this a tax?
Have you gotten your "free" Obama phone? (Or did you just buy one for somebody else…?)
Have you watched the famous “obama phone lady” viral video? Don’t miss this one! – CLICK HERE TO WATCH HER NOW!
The Federal Lifeline program goes back to 1996 and Ronald Reagan - NOT Obama.
It was included in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Act did several things, including helping to provide internet service to rural hospital doctors, patients and hospitals. It is subsidizing internet and phone coverage for schools and libraries. It is helping with aid for free or subsidized coverage for people who can’t afford phone service so they can reach emergency services. The Act was not really taxpayer funded through federal taxes directly — the Act “mandated the creation of the universal service fund (USF) into which all telecommunications providers are required to contribute a percentage of their interstate and international end-user telecommunications revenues.” This is why you will entries on your phone bill labeled “USF” That’s what you’re paying for. Supposedly, this act was not intended to force people to participate with payment of it in the form of a “tax”, per se. But in fact, the phone companies pass their obligation to pay that by charging their customers with those USF fees. Ever tried to get that removed from your bill?
Somebody is trying to stop the misuse of the original purpose for the Lifeline Program:
There is a bill to stop this practice, now that it has expanded to millions of cell phones which earns millions of dollars for certain private cell phone companies, as the video above describes. The “stop taxpayer funded cell phone act” is an effort to curb this program which some people believe is being used as a tax and which is not being used in the way it was originally intended. The act attempts to stop cell phone providers from promoting and reaping benefits from this program. The act wants to” “Prohibits a provider of commercial mobile communications service from receiving universal service support under specified provisions of the Communications Act of 1934 for the provision of such service through the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Lifeline program (a program that provides discounts on monthly telephone service to qualifying low-income consumers).”
