"Obama phone" myth DEBUNKED! The truth about Lifeline cell service.

[markjs]

I see a lot of BS about taxpayers buying phones for welfare recipients. This is of course not true at all. The program was initiated with land lines back during the Reagan administration. It was started for wireless during the Bush Jr. administration. Further it is not taxpayer funded. The telecom companies themselves fund it. They use a small amount of their proceeds from their paying customers to fund it. Many people in low income brackets who are not on welfare qualify and many also do pay for extra minutes generating revenues the telecoms might not otherwise have. No system is perfect, and perhaps some folks do get something for nothing but it still is not a taxpayer funded program, nor does it have anything at all to do with Obama. For actual details please refer to any of a number of articles detailing the situation, one of which can be found here. Another good article here.

[vmobi]

I see a lot of BS about taxpayers buying phones for welfare recipients. This is of course not true at all. The program was initiated with land lines back during the Reagan administration. It was started for wireless during the Bush Jr. administration. Further it is not taxpayer funded. The telecom companies themselves fund it. They use a small amount of their proceeds from their paying customers to fund it. Many people in low income brackets who are not on welfare qualify and many also do pay for extra minutes generating revenues the telecoms might not otherwise have. No system is perfect, and perhaps some folks do get something for nothing but it still is not a taxpayer funded program, nor does it have anything at all to do with Obama. For actual details please refer to any of a number of articles detailing the situation, one of which can be found here. Another good article here.

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[cyberstoic]

Without trying to be arguementative or disrespectful, whom is it that you think is paying this? The telecoms? They transfer the cost to their paying customers and thus those that buy service from these companies are paying for it.

Nothing is ever free, and businesses always pass the cost of taxes and mandates, overt or covert on to their customers.

Not sure what President Obama had to do with this since it has been in place, as you noted, for some time.

Take care.

[JJOM]

I was looking for a pre-paid phone for my elderly mother, and had forgotten about this program.

So I went about finding her a Lifeline phone, and the problem I kept running into was that may of the providers only cover certain areas, and Assurance wanted her to download and mail-in an application?! The what... wait it our?

So I did stumble across a site that had information about all the different areas (states), and they had the ability to allow you to sign-up online. Worked out good. BTW, we ended-up with Safelink. Not sure how good they are, but we were wiling to try.

This is the site: phone-bill-assistance.com [couldn't link it because I don't post much at all]

JL

I see a lot of BS about taxpayers buying phones for welfare recipients. This is of course not true at all. The program was initiated with land lines back during the Reagan administration. It was started for wireless during the Bush Jr. administration. Further it is not taxpayer funded. The telecom companies themselves fund it. They use a small amount of their proceeds from their paying customers to fund it. Many people in low income brackets who are not on welfare qualify and many also do pay for extra minutes generating revenues the telecoms might not otherwise have. No system is perfect, and perhaps some folks do get something for nothing but it still is not a taxpayer funded program, nor does it have anything at all to do with Obama. For actual details please refer to any of a number of articles detailing the situation, ...