Free Obama Cell Phones for the Masses: Taxpayer subsided

**vector7** · January 19th, 2009, 15:57

The Obama phone, made in China, sold in Kenya

Brad Sams

on 16 January 2009 - 13:35 · 46 comments & 5333 views

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It's no secret that President-elect Obama is a crowd pleaser. He has legions of faithful followers and he has started a movement of "change that we can believe in". So naturally the next logical thing for the Chinese to do is to rip off a Nokia design, brand it with the Obama name, and sell it in Kenya.

As hard as that is to believe, you will be able to pick up the Mi-Obama phone at the following retailers in Kenya ( the place of Obama's fathers birth) Xpress@, Nakumatt, Phonelink, and Tuskys for the low low price of $30.00.

While the phone idea is laughable it does go to show that Obama has reached a vast audience. He is on the world stage and has big shoes to fill after a long fought campaign.

**vector7** · November 21st, 2009, 18:02

Free Obama Cell Phones for the Masses: Taxpayer subsided

80 minutes free per months or for a small fee unlimited calling.

The are government stipulations.

This is no joke, it's for real.

Check out the requirements.

**American Patriot** · November 23rd, 2009, 18:46

I checked it out.

Who's paying for this? Oh, I am. nevermind

**vector7** · February 10th, 2012, 00:50

Companion Threads:

Washington Footing the Cell Phone Bill for Millions of Low Income Americans

By BRAD TUTTLE | Time.com – Wed, Feb 8, 2012

Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts. The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, is popular for obvious reasons, with participation rising steeply since 2008, when the government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills. But observers complain that the program suffers from poor oversight, in which phones go to people who don't qualify, and hundreds of thousands of those who do qualify have more than one phone.

Last summer, a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story shed some light on a government program that relatively few Americans knew existed. (Read more about it here.) The Lifeline program provides low-income Americans with free cell phones (basic ones such as those made by Tracfone, not smartphones) and covers up to 250 free minutes each month. As many as 5.5 million residents in Pennsylvania alone could qualify for the program, which is funded primarily by the Universal Service Fund fee added to the bills of land-line and wireless customers.

The program came to be after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed, and the FCC created the Universal Service Fund to help "to promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable, and affordable rates," among other things. All telecommunications carriers must pay into the fund, and many do so by tacking on a fee to each of their customers' bills. It's probably added into your monthly wireless bill and your landline bill, if you still have one.

The Universal Service Fund provides discounts on phone services, or in some cases, entirely free services to low-income Americans. The fund helps pay for landlines or cell phones, whichever the recipient prefers. There's also a one-time discount of up to $30 to cover an installation fee or a cell phone. Considering how cheap some cell phones are nowadays, the money more than covers the costs of a basic phone. Then, the fund covers phone bills to the tune of $10 a month, which typically translates as 250 minutes for wireless plans of the types of phones we're talking about. Americans who receive food stamps, Medicaid, or other federal aid, or who earn up to 135% of the federal poverty guidelines, qualify for the program.

Now, Bloomberg Businessweek reports, we have a pretty good idea of how much the program pays out -- and how quickly it's growing as more and more people find out about it. In 2011, Lifeline paid out $1.6 billion, more than double the amount paid in 2008 ($772 million).

(MORE: Is Cell Phone 'Bill Shock' Going Away?)

What's more, an FCC audit of the program last year showed that many participants in the program were taking more than their fair share. According to Businessweek:

269,000 wireless Lifeline subscribers were receiving free phones and monthly service from two or more carriers.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) has been taking a closer look at the program since she personally received an invitation to apply for a free, government-subsidized cell phone in the mail. McCaskill has asked the FCC to investigate Lifeline. As a result, the FCC is building a database to see if a subscriber has more than one subsidized phone. In other words, until recently, such a database didn't exist.

The FCC, which announced the changes by using the euphemism that it is "modernizing" Lifeline, has set a goal of saving $200 million on the program in 2012. After eliminating nearly 270,000 of the duplicate subscriptions discovered in the audit last year, the FCC said it has already "saved" $33 million.

**Ryan Ruck** · February 10th, 2012, 07:43

Originally Posted by vector7

Washington Footing the Cell Phone Bill for Millions of Low Income Americans

Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts.

I knew this program was out there but I had no idea it was that massive!

**American Patriot** · February 10th, 2012, 16:23

We should all run out and get them!

Wtf? If you can't BEAT them back, then join them and take, take, take until the system crashes.

That's what THEY want anyway.

**vector7** · April 25th, 2013, 17:48

Lawmakers warn cost of federal free phone program spinning out of control

By Jim Angle
Published April 22, 2013

What started out as an effort by President Reagan to help poor people in rural areas have a phone in cases of emergency has mushroomed into what critics suspect is a new welfare program.

"The cost has gone from $143 million a few years ago to $2.2 billion today," Republican Louisiana Sen. David Vitter said, noting that today's cost is 15 times what it was.

The cost of the program increased dramatically after cellphones were added in 2008. Only low-income people on welfare and food stamps legally qualify, but some lawmakers say the program is out of control.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, was incensed when she got an offer of a free phone.

"I got solicitation for a free phone at my apartment, which is certainly not a building where you're going to have people who are qualified for free phones. ... There is clearly money being wasted here."

And Vitter adds, "The FCC, itself, said in a recent year there were 270,000 beneficiaries that had more than one of these subsidized cellphones. That's completely against the law right there."

Funded by a small tax on all phone bills, the program has exploded -- with companies advertising free phones and offering 250 minutes.

Harold Feld of a group called Public Knowledge notes, "you have a lot of these prepaid-phone, no-contract options that are obviously very popular."

The FCC told lawmakers the top five companies can't verify the eligibility of 41 percent of those who get phones.

"I hear from law enforcement that these phones are often found at crime scenes and are used in drug deals," Republican Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas said.
"Why? It's because you can't trace them."

"Just handing out phones willy nilly and allowing them to be sold on the black market," Sen. McCaskill said. "This isn't the way to do it, and we need to stop."

Some recipients famously called them "Obama phones," with one boasting to the media during the election that minorities should support the president precisely because he gave them free cellphones.

That is not true, and many are appalled by the abuse in the program.