Yet More ObamaPhone “Good News”
I’ve written previously about the “Lifeline” program, AKA “ObamaPhones”. Short version: the program today is poorly conceived, badly run, and rife with fraud. You can see my previous articles about it here and here.
Well, here’s some more news about Lifeline. And as before – if you pay taxes or pay for your own phone service – and thus pay for stupid crap like this – the recent news concerning the program kinda . . . sucks.
For those who might not be familiar: “Lifeline” provides subsidies so that “low income” households can have a phone for emergency essential communications. The program is theoretically limited to one phone per “independent economic household (IEH)”.
When the program was landline-only, that was fairly easy to enforce. Then in 2005, cell phones were allowed under the program.
Now, Stevie Wonder could have seen that was a bad idea from a fraud perspective. But the program was changed to allow cells anyway.
Theoretically, Lifeline enrollees are still required to give a valid address. Also theoretically, multiple enrollments at the same address are a “no go”. Except . . . they’re not, really.
You see, telecom companies are allowed to “override” the IEH (e.g., one subscriber per address) requirement. The override is designed to be used for places like homeless shelters, where conceivably multiple persons who qualify might reside.
However, recent reporting from telecom companies participating in indicates that over 1/3 of Lifeline subscribers last year used this “override” – e.g., a second (or third/fourth/fifth/whatever) line at an address already having a Lifeline subscriber. And there’s no telling how many more covert fraudulent ones were issued (multiple subscribers in one household, but not all using their actual residence address on their application).
There is no way in hell all of those overrides were legit. I’d be surprised if even 2% of them were.
It gets even better. In one company’s case – Total Call Mobile – 99.8% of their Lifeline subscribers were approved using the override (the overall average was 35+%). Yeah, Total Call Mobile is the same company that recently got fined $51M by the FCC for program violations – and as I noted here, likely still came out nearly $40M ahead on the deal. Nice gig if you can stomach the work, I guess.
Further, employees at Total Call Mobile said they learned how to do that from employees at other companies participating in the program. So some of the other Lifeline providers are doubtless doing the same, albeit certainly not on the same scale.
The aggregate cost of this apparent fraud to taxpayers? Try around $476M annually – or nearly half a billion dollars. And that’s likely a low estimate.
The Washington Examiner and Washington Free Beacon each have recent articles describing this latest Obamaphone fishiness. They’re worthwhile reading, even if they might turn your stomach.
We need to make major changes to this fraud-filled abomination of a Federal program. IMO it needs to go back to landline-only – pronto.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Government Incompetence
Landline only is the only way to go. Someone who needs a phone to call 911 or to receive calls from prospective employers(Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha) only need a landline, they don’t need megabytes of data and an iPhone or the Galaxy S-9 or whatever.
I agree with you, UPNorth. Seems like the majority of cell 911 calls, the caller can’t provide basic info to the operator, like an address.
I wish they would just do away with the program entirely. Waste of taxpayer dollars; and of course could go on and on about tax waste.
Yeah,, this is like the snail darter preservation program, it’ll never go away.
No gruberment program ever goes away. Think of all those bureaucrats making a nice living on our tax money. Do you believe they will ever allow anything that place their employment in jeopardy?
If my employer only gives me a 10 year old flip phone with no text or data for work use, then the same should be good enough for the welfare queens.
This could re rectified simply by making it exactly what is was meant to be; provide a phone (that makes calls) not a voucher that is then rolled into a bigger phone plan.
Down on your luck, and need a flip phone to call potential employers? I’m all for it, subsidize your new Iphone 18 and unlimited data plan, no way.
Magic Jack: 20 bucks a year. Why not put that in place?
Then we would have to pay for their internet connection.
Um, we’re already doing that. As I noted in my previous article on the subject, the Lifeline program was expanded in March to cover data service along with voice.
and new laptops
Occasionally I have to drive through some seriously “disadvantaged” residential neighborhoods. Always surprises me how many WiFi networks my phone picks up.
But then again, throughout human history you could tell the poor of any land by how thin they were, nowadays the libtards fret over the issue of gross obesity among the “poverty-stricken”.
This is more, of the more again, liberal shit, of giving OUR tax dollars to the lazy, good for nothing dregs of society. I leave this YouTube here from 2012 to let you see how it went down in Cleveland then. It is still the same here where I live and it makes me sick.
^^^^^Like^^^^^
The woman is obviously a shrewd political strategist. Hillary should pick her for a running mate…
Why am I not surprised at this?
Right…I was thinking of some long winded response, but really it’s Friday it’s time to grab an adult beverage and think about something less aggravating so….
I accidentally hit the report tab. Sorry about that.
I guess I’ll have to quit using a (not so) smart phone so much.
Sounds like a good plan. Do they throw in voice-to-text support through an interpreter, the way relay services for the deaf currently do? That would require texting, which should be a part of the plan.
Wasn’t it Sparks who suggested the phones should have 4 working buttons: ‘Accept Call’, ‘End Call’, ‘9’ and ‘1’?
As a young soldier back in the ’70s, married (dumb, too young) and living off post, I was “required” to have a phone in case of an “alert” was called.
Nobody paid my damn phone bill! It would have been nice if Uncle Sam issued me a phone…
“If we wanted you to have a wife (and phone) we would have issued you one!”
“The aggregate cost of this apparent fraud to taxpayers? Try around $476M annually – or nearly half a billion dollars. And that’s likely a low estimate.”
Unfortunately, the above amount is just the cost in fraud… The overall program is costing a couple of billion with a big B!
Here’s an interesting extract from a June 2015 National Review article:
“Unfortunately, Lifeline, known in some circles as the “Obamaphone” program, is plagued by waste, fraud, and abuse. And ground zero for the program’s current woes is the state of Oklahoma.
Why? The typical Lifeline subsidy is $9.25 per month. But those who live on lands designated as “tribal” receive $34.25 per month, whether or not they are Native Americans. You might not think that this is a big deal, but here’s the rub. The FCC currently treats virtually all of Oklahoma as tribal land. So, for example, a non–Native American living in Tulsa is eligible for $300 more per year in phone subsidies than a low-income person in East Los Angeles or Appalachia.”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419868/fcc-should-fix-not-expand-broken-obamaphone-program-ajit-pai
I’ve seen them set up in parking lots here in NC with crowds of people standing in line for their “free” phone. Makes me want to barf.
I see them in about every store I enter: Standing in the middle of the aisle, yappin’ their gums on their obomaphone, them and their cart blocking the aisle and their cart filled with junk food and expensive meats. Working men and women pay for damn near everything that so many millions think of as being ‘free’. The really sad part is many/most of them don’t give a shit. They are ‘entitled’. Now, if you want to paint me with the ‘R’ word, go ahead. That word, BTW, is ‘Realist’.
Just like the few times I’ve seen a well dressed young woman with perfect hair and a manicure paying for groceries with WIC stamps with a grin on her face. It took all of my self control to keep myself from saying “Hon, if you can’t feed them, DON’T BREED THEM!”
Quite a few times that I have been in Walmart I have been approached by someone asking if I need a free phone. Between that and the commercials I really want to smack someone.
Personal responsibility is ceasing to exist.
Fucking cocksuckers.
I wonder IF the company or companies providing said service to the “disadvantaged” donated lavishly to B. Hussein 0bama & Company before getting the Government Contract(s)? OOOH, PERISH THE THOUGHT!! /sarc
I belive Jimmy Carter started this entire phone business, and it was a good plane in principle.
Allow poor people to be able to make EMERGENCY calls.
Theres no excuse for providing costly phones at Taxpayer expense.
Like many other Social assistance programs this has been around for a long time.
Under Obama the “entitled ones” now feel free to grab as much “free stuff” as they can. And Obama’s minions are glad to dole it out.
WTF?
Low-income households have been eligible for discounted telephone service for more than a decade. But the program is funded by telecom companies, not by taxes, and the president has nothing to do with it.
The money actually comes from a small fee added to most people’s monthly phone bills, called the Universal Service Fund fee.
Not exactly. To paraphrase an old saying: if something looks like a tax, walks like a tax, stinks like a tax, and bites your wallet like a tax . . . then regardless of its formal name, it’s effectively a tax. The so-called Universal Service Fund “fees” are authorized by Federal law and are collected by order of the FCC, which is an independent Federal agency. They are earmarked to support programs authorized by Federal law. The FCC also oversees the administrator of the fund, the nonprofit Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). Hmm. Payment is mandatory; it’s collected under the authority of Federal law; the proceeds support programs authorized by law; and there is Federal oversight of those programs. Now, what does that sound like? Now, regarding who pays. Paying telecommunications customers – e.g., taxpayers – pay the so-called “universal service fee”. As noted above, I say “so-called” because, like the Obamacare “penalty”, it is a Federal tax in all but name. Don’t believe me? Try to obtain telephone service without paying it. Let me know how that turns out for ya. Further, the fact that the USAC is a nonprofit means they don’t pay the same taxes as other corporations – so there’s lost Federal revenue, which other taxpayers must make up. Finally, the labor the FCC uses to oversee the program, hold public hearings, make rules/regulations for the program, etc . . . , is not free – and Federal employee salaries and other expenses (e.g., supplies, travel, etc . . . ) generally are paid out of tax receipts. Bottom line: US taxpayers fund this program, 100%. They do so via a combination of (1) mandatory payments imposed by the Federal government pursuant to Federal law on selected telecommunications services – in other words, by paying something that is functionally equivalent to a tax; (2) paying additional other taxes to make up for those not paid by the USAC; and (3) paying other Federal taxes to fund the FCC salaries, travel, and administrative expenses associated with overseeing the program. You might want to do some homework and… Read more »
91A1P: BULLSHIT!
“The money actually comes from a small fee added to most people’s monthly phone bills, called the Universal Service Fund fee.”
The “small fee” is a subsidy aka tax. Land line, then cell phones and now broadband. What is next, smart TV’s?
Probably. After all, it’s Free.