Federal Government Gives Out Free Cell Phones and Airtime to Welfare Recipients

Call me Kreskin but you and I both know these are not being used to get jobs.Your tax dollars at work – and via Occupy Wall Street’s demands for more we see that this still isn’t enough to satisfy the vast, entitled masses who think I should work to support them.

From The Economic Collapse Blog:

Did you know that the federal government is giving out free cell phones and free cell phone minutes to welfare recipients?  It may be hard to believe, but it is true.  Right now, there are companies that are running advertisements specifically targeted at low income Americans informing them of the fact that all they have to do is sign up and they can get a free cell phone and hundreds of free cell phone minutes every single month and it will all be paid for by the federal government.  Some have referred to this as “The Obama Phone”, but that is not exactly accurate.  The outrageous federal programs that are paying for this were initiated before Barack Obama entered the White House.  But the fact that welfare recipients have been receiving free cell phones and free cell phone minutes under both the Bush and Obama administrations has been confirmed as being true by Snopes.  All of this is paid for by “the federal Universal Service Fund”.  That is one of those annoying little taxes that you may have noticed on your phone bill.  So what is essentially happening is the federal government is taking money from all of us so that they can provide free cell phone service for welfare recipients every single month.

That post points us to the FCC website where this information is found:

The Lifeline program provides discounts on monthly telephone charges, and Link Up provides a discount on the cost of commencing telephone service for qualifying low-income households. Lifeline and Link Up are supported by the federal Universal Service Fund (USF). The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), with the help of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), administers the USF. Here are some frequently asked questions about the Lifeline and Link Up programs.

[…]

Lifeline provides discounts on one basic monthly telephone service (wireline or wireless) for qualified subscribers. These discounts can be up to $10.00 per month, depending on your state. Federal rules prohibit qualifying low-income consumers from receiving more than ONE Lifeline service at the same time. That is, qualifying low-income consumers may receive a Lifeline discount on either a home telephone or wireless telephone service, but may not receive a Lifeline discount on both services at the same time. Lifeline also includes Toll Limitation Service, which enables a telephone subscriber to limit the amount of long distance calls that can be made from a telephone.

Link Up Up provides qualified subscribers with a one-time discount (up to a maximum of $30) off of the initial installation fee for one traditional, wireline telephone service at the primary residence or the activation fee for one wireless telephone. It also allows subscribers to pay the remaining amount they owe on a deferred schedule, interest-free. Federal rules prohibit qualifying low-income consumers from receiving more than ONE Link Up discount at a primary residence. That is, qualifying low-income consumers may receive a Link Up discount on installation or activation charges associated with either a home telephone or wireless telephone service. Qualifying consumers may be eligible for Link Up again only after moving to a new primary residence..

However The Economic Collapse Blog points out that there are companies providing free phones and minutes to welfare recipients – after all they simply milk the government of the money the government takes from me.

So what happened to food stamps and rent assistance? What’s next cars? Why are you suckers with jobs out there working to support this system? Go Galt!