Obamaphones-Now with internet!

[TFOGGER]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015...poor.html?_r=0

NEW YORK — The head of the Federal Communications Commission is proposing that the government agency expand a phone subsidy program for the poor to include Internet access.The FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, has called broadband a critical service for modern life. But many low-income people don't have access.
According to a Pew Research Center report from 2013, 70 percent of U.S. adults have a high-speed Internet connection at home. Only 54 percent of households earnings less than $30,000 a year do.
The FCC says low-income Americans are more likely to rely on smartphones for Internet access. According to the Pew report, 67 percent of households that make less than $30,000 a year have home broadband or a smartphone.
The program, called Lifeline, was started in 1985 and expanded to include wireless phones in 2005. In 2014, it served 12 million households and cost $1.7 billion, paid for by surcharges on the country's telephone customer bills.
Eligibility depends on income being at or less than 135 percent of the federal government's poverty line, or participation in programs includingMedicaid, food stamps or free school lunch.

[generalmeow]

Put Republicans in charge, and not only will they not kill the Obamaphone program, they'll expand it. They'll call it freedomphones, or patriotphones, or libertyphones. Can't take away someone's Obamaphone once they've already got one and depend on it.

Do you remember entitlements and handouts decreasing under any Republican administration? Me neither.

[SNAFU]

That's it,gonna become unemployable.
To get all this tax payer free upgrades.
Food,heat,internet,phone,computer,,and paid schooling.

[Dave_L]

Once you get someone on the hook, it's hard, if not impossible, to get them off. Can you imagine the riots if any administration tried to reel back benefits at this point?

[blacklabel]

Once you get someone on the hook, it's hard, if not impossible, to get them off. Can you imagine the riots if any administration tried to reel back benefits at this point?

Reel back? Have them delayed by a couple days and Walmart becomes a war zone.

[KS63]

Government subsidies=Legal Crack

[GilpinGuy]

The FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, has called broadband a critical service for modern life.

Tough to get the flash mob updates without Twitter.

[RblDiver]

People who argued against net neutrality warned others about new taxes et al being levied on the internet. We were told we were nuts.

Now look at what's going on...

[Dave]

Put Republicans in charge, and not only will they not kill the Obamaphone program, they'll expand it. They'll call it freedomphones, or patriotphones, or libertyphones. Can't take away someone's Obamaphone once they've already got one and depend on it.

Do you remember entitlements and handouts decreasing under any Republican administration? Me neither.

You mean the original Bush phones? The subsidized phone plans started with him as land lines, then moved onto being cell phones under Obama. Medicare Part D was his plan as well with no idea on how to fund it. None of the a**holes wanting to run in 2016 want to reduce spending, they just want to direct the cash flow to whoever will help get them elected.

[Skip]

How else are they going to mobilize/organize all those Democrats? The ones with all day to promote Hope 'n Change...

It isn't going to end until the working/producing folks stand up and end it. And "voting harder this time" isn't a solution.