You Paid For It: Free government cell phone program expanding

Good story – but there’s several other benefits that people who receive Government Benefits like Food Stamps (SNAP), Medicaid, Section 8 Public Housing Assistance, TANF and others. Another program is Lifeline where people can qualify for a FREE cell phone and up to 250 minutes of monthly service. Lifeline Landing is a new service that allows consumers to compare and evaluate different wireless carriers for their FREE Government Cell Phone Service and find the best deal for their individual situation. Visit http://www.lifelinelanding.com to learn more – hope this helps!

"You should focus your anger on the phone company you work with since it is they who are charging this fee, not the gov't". Just as I suspected he is a fool, or a classic university sophist working overtime to shield government through endless tangential argument. He probably thinks employers contributing 50% of most social security and medicare dollars is kosher too, because it doesn't come out of the employee's pocket directly (employers just deduct it from their potential pay before they even see it, ergo another ninja tax). And Obama is a socialist, by most of his words, and all of his deeds.

Well now, I'll zoom on you. Let's focus on YOUR logic for a second, Lervia. There are many, many things that make little logical sense in your arguments. Let's consider just your first statement: "Yes, it IS expanding under the Obama Administration". Are you aware of the difference between correlation and causality? If someone goes down the street handing out guns to everybody in your town the day before you become mayor, and there is an immediate increase in the murder rate during your term, technically the murder rate did increase under your administration. Has this been a direct cause of what you are doing as a mayor? No. Circumstances have changed. The program changed its offering just before Obama became president. At the same time, the country was facing economic woes that hadn't been seen in the past 70 years, so of course, the number of people applying for the program would increase. What you must acknowledge is that expansion would have occurred whether Obama, McCain, Ron or Rand Paul, or even the darling of you conservatives, the illustrious Palin, were in the Oval Office. Now, I could go on but am only allowed 1000 characters. I could discuss your next statement about taxpayer dollars vs tax dollars.It is clear that you don't know the origin of that fee. You should focus your anger on the phone company you work with since it is they who are charging this fee, not the gov't. I could ask if you knew the difference between a fee and a tax. I could ask you why you say it is tax payers dollars when you are not sure that everyone that pays that fee is a taxpayer. Those are just the first 4 lines of what you've said. I hated that video too, but I am conscious enough to realize that those videos were obviously created and promoted to inflame the passions of the reactionary. I am also sick when I hear people calling Obama a socialist, a Marxist and other epithets, since I DO know what those words mean. I wish you all well. I'll respond no longer.

I seriously hope an economics lecturer doesn't think this horses___ program is better because government mandates cell phone companies charge other customers (such as my family with 2 cell phones) rather than taxing for it themselves. Not only is it effectively equivalent, it is much more sinister as it redirects anger at the phone companies who have nothing to do with it. And I haven't seen Obama or any Democrats wanting to erase this program either.

@Patriot Blue: In the first place, I explicitly said that this program has been around for quite a number of years. Yes, it IS expanding under the Obama Administration. And, as for your link, the "myth" about taxpayer dollars funding the program is still true. It's taxpayer dollars, not tax dollars. All of us pay the fee to our phone companies to fund this program, and it's mandatory, not a volunteer donation. Taxes are mandatory, and that fee is mandatory (if you have a phone), so they're pretty much one and the same, aren't they?!?!??!?! The rest of the link is basic biased garbage and rhetoric. Couldn't you find anything better than that? Lilly's comment was the most innocuous on this thread, yet you chose her to zoom in on. Yes, I dislike Obama and his Presidency and Administration, but I don't erroneously FOCUS on that or scapegoat them. I don't limit myself to one area of news, commentary, or vitriol. I am, tho, a Conservative, and my heart will follow my Conservative roots and belief. Obama and his administration have provided plenty of fodder for criticism. BTW, I really don't know where you get off accusing me of vitriolic comments and a political axe to grind with regard to my comments on this subject. I actually said very little, yet did provide several links to stories that needed to be read, even off topic of this headline because WOAI wasn't covering them. And, as far as this program, when the woman with the mouth full of food and absolutely not an intelligent thought in her head went viral before the election spouting love, praise, and adolation for Obama for the free phones and that's why everybody must vote for him, you've got to expect the acid stomach reaction from intelligent, Conservative voters. And, "too close to home" is not an uninformed comment, and I suspect that the reason you took so much offense to Lilly's comment and mine is because that is quite true.

LOL, Lervia. I focused on the comment because it was a way for Lilly and you and others, to erroneously focus your dislike of someone and scapegoat them for something that they did not create nor expand. Plus, you are dead wrong. It did not expand under Obama, it expanded under Bush. Therefore, it is clear that you did not read the link I posted, nor bother to look at ANY other internet source before you spouted off at the keyboard. Take the time to do some research before you post your vitriolic, political axe to grind. There may be many legitimate reasons to hate Obama, this program isn't one of them. By the way, I am a successful businessman, and an economics lecturer so it will be a long time before I need a free cell phone, thank god. So, I'm not quite sure what you were getting at by your uninformed comment of 'too close to home'.

Patriot Blue, why pick Lilly out of the bunch of us and zoom in on her simple question? Too close to home? The phone program has been around for quite a number of years, but it's being expanded, as are other entitlement programs, under Obama's watch, so............. How is Lilly's comment more about Obama than TeaAm's, or mine? Another ID SS?

@Lilly What does Obama have to do with this? http://www.cellularphones4free.com/5-myths/

Another example of what we're paying for. ....... "Report: Welfare recipients drawing taxpayer funds at strip clubs, liquor joints, porn shops" http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/06/report-wefare-recipients-drawing-taxpayer-funds-at-strip-clubs-liquor-joints-and-porn-shops/

If you receive Government Benefits like Food Stamps (SNAP), Medicaid, Section 8, TANF and others then you qualify for a FREE beer and up to 250 refills of monthly service through the Government’s Free Beer Program. Lifeline Landing is a new service that allows consumers to compare and evaluate different beer brands for their FREE Government Beer Service and find the best deal for their individual taste buds. Visit http://www.lifelinelanding.com to learn more!