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FCC To Begin Tracking ‘Obama-Phone’ Usage

From The Hill:

FCC begins tracking ‘Obama Phone’ use

By Brendan Sasso | December 18, 2013

The Federal Communications Commission this week began to compile a database of subscribers to its phone subsidy program. The database is intended to help the commission crack down on waste and fraud in the $1.85 billion program for the poor, called Lifeline.

Better late than never. But doesn’t this put the lie to the argument that this is a privately run operation that the government has nothing to do with?

Mark Wigfield, an FCC spokesman, told The Hill that the agency began collecting data on Monday on Lifeline subscribers in five states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma and Washington. The agency plans to expand the database to include information on all subscribers nationwide by the end of March, Wigfield said.

The database will help the commission ensure that multiple companies are not receiving subsidies to sign up the same subscribers.

You mean they haven’t even been checking for that? Sheesh!

The FCC first announced that it would create the database as part of a set of reforms to the program in early 2012.

And it’s only taken them almost two years to get started. How typical.

Lifeline has come under attack from conservative lawmakers and activists, who point to it as a prime example of wasteful government handouts.

The program is often derisively referred to as the "Obama Phone" program, although it began long before Obama took office…

A detail the news media is always careful to point out. And never mind that this program didn’t use to cover cell phones. And never mind that it has exploded under Obama.

Lifeline gained more attention last year when conservatives seized on a viral video of a woman saying she would vote for President Obama because he gave her a free phone…

Why should anyone would be upset by that?


2 Responses to “FCC To Begin Tracking ‘Obama-Phone’ Usage”

  1. canary

    Maybe they are looking for people who have more than one cell phone since the Obama phone spread out and hired several companies to choose from. Reach out….Assure….etc.

    It guess with finding Obama’s tapping everyone’s phone unconstitutional he is focusing on people
    with government phones and saying they have no right to privacy. Might catch some criminals or terrorists who are more likely to get the phones and throw them away.

    I wonder if the Boston Marathon bombers their families had Obama phones.

  2. Compiling a database? Come on! Each of the “Obama Phone” companies already has some kind of database because they need to know how much to rape the rest of us for with imaginary fees and bogus taxes to get their money. Rather than wasting another 2 years on a Washington based brain(less) trust that will eventually come up with something on par with the OBAMACARE website, why not just ask the providers for a copy of their databases. They already give the government whatever they want, whenever they want it with absolutely no regard for the privacy of their customers. What’s the big friggin’ deal?

    They’re trying to cut down on fraud and waste by fraudulently wasting even more money to play catch-up on paperwork that should have been the first order of business? WTF? I’ll bet you could follow that money trail straight into some worthless Obama lackey’s pocket, and 2 years from now they still won’t have the information we’re being told they are collecting. Waiting for more glitches? Wait no more. Heeeeeer’s Obama!!!

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