Remember all the “Reclassify Now!” banners during the net neutrality debates? Well, they snuck this in with it right under your noses. Remember how you supporters expounded about how net neutrality wouldn’t mean higher rates or fees? Boy did you get snookered.
So we now will have Obama Internet along with those Obama Phones. And I suppose what’s next is Obama Computers too. Free phone service, free Internet, free computers for our less fortunate but entitled citizens. And as a bonus they will now have more disposable income to spend on lottery tickets, cigarettes, alcohol, weed, and heroin. Pay some quack to get you on disability and you’re livin’ the good life.
And guess who gets to pay for it? Do I even need to ask?
Remember, the Universal Service Fund is not a tax. It's a mandatory percentage assessment on carrier gross revenues. But it's not a tax. So read their lips, no new taxes.
Then why is it listed on my bill as an additional fee that I have to pay? You can spin it all you want. It IS a tax as far as my pocketbook is concerned. We are becoming Greece. We want all these social programs but we want somebody else to pay for them. We are in debt up to our eyeballs, demanding this and that from the government, and someday the bill will come due just like Greece found out. I suspect the Chinese will not be as accommodating as the Germans are. What happens when WE are given an ‘austerity' ultimatum?
The point is valid regardless. If we're subsidizing poor people's internet at the federal level we don't also need to do so at the local level. How is that point lost on you?
Where in the article did it say we are subsidizing broadband at the local level?
Where in the article did it say we are subsidizing broadband at the local level?
Please stop the willful ignorance. As the original poster said we are subsidizing library broadband internet which is intended to benefit the same poor people as subsidized federal data plans. Library internet is mentioned in the article. Unnecessary double subsidization as the OP said.
Like public education in a more general sense, we ALL benefit when out fellow citizens are more informed, not less. Fraud should be aggressively pursued, but all in all a modest investment in our national future. IMHO of course.
"A: No. Low-income households have been eligible for discounted telephone service for more than a decade [i.e. BUSH]. But the program is funded by telecom companies, not by taxes, and the president has nothing to do with it."
WILSON PHONES!
"
The president has no direct impact on the program, and one could hardly call these devices "Obama Phones," as the e-mail author does. This specific program, SafeLink, started under President George Bush, with grants from an independent company created under President Bill Clinton, which was a legacy of an act passed under President Franklin Roosevelt, which was influenced by an agreement reached between telecommunications companies and the administration of President Woodrow Wilson.
The point is valid regardless. If we're subsidizing poor people's internet at the federal level we don't also need to do so at the local level. How is that point lost on you?
A point to make to your local library board right quick then.
"A: No. Low-income households have been eligible for discounted telephone service for more than a decade. But the program is funded by telecom companies, not by taxes, and the president has nothing to do with it."
Loses all credibility right there. See our earlier USF Not a Tax discussion. "Fact" Check bought politician propaganda hook line and sinker in order to advance liberal causes like they usually do.
Also, if the President has "nothing" to do with it, then why is the USF regulated by the FCC (and not by telecom groups like CTIA), and why is the FCC led by political appointees... selected by the President?
If Fact Check actually checked into facts and not pushed an agenda, they'd write that the Bell System monopoly had a policy, under Teddy Vail of "universal service". In order to be granted the monopoly they had, they made an agreement to act like a utility. This means that expensive lines (in rural areas) would be subsidized by cheap lines (cities). Just like the power company or USPS, everybody paid the same, regardless of the actual cost of service. On top of that, schools and hospitals and such received discounted rates.
When the Bell System broke up in 1984, this internal system was nationalized into a program by the FCC. Under Democrats like Clinton and especially Obama, this system morphed into welfare, by giving service away to the poor.
Lifeline is absurd to begin with. We're dealing with a cultural and political mentality that is so ass backwards: The more people dependent on government programs, the better. In fact, just the opposite is true.
The reason people are dependent on government programs is because the private sector believes profits for stock holders comes first and the poor should not even make a living wage. The poor are increasingly made from lower middle class people which have lost employment and lack higher education and the skills they need to be part of modern day (post industrial) America. I know many people that have sunken into this category, they have worked hard all their lives and are not lazy but if you need to see them as the villains to make sense of the world then I guess there is nothing I can say to change your mind.
"<span style="border:0px;color:rgb(128,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">A:</span>
</span>
</span>
<span style="border:0px;color:rgb(68,68,68);margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;"> No. Low-income households have been eligible for discounted telephone service for more than a decade [i.e. BUSH]. But the program is funded by telecom companies, not by taxes, and the president has nothing to do with it."</span>
<p style="border:0px;color:rgb(68,68,68);margin-bottom:5px;vertical-align:baseline;">The president has no direct impact on the program, and one could hardly call these devices "Obama Phones," as the e-mail author does. This specific program, SafeLink, started under President George Bush, with grants from an independent company created under President Bill Clinton, which was a legacy of an act passed under President Franklin Roosevelt, which was influenced by an agreement reached between telecommunications companies and the administration of President Woodrow Wilson.</p>
I see the shopping carts of fat people with children in tow who pay with their items using foodstamps, and their carts are filled with items like ice cream, potato chips, sodas. These people are not in need, and if they need a phone or the internet, then they can easily scrape together the money if it was important to them. Let them go without buying a $200 pair of sneakers, I'm sure that they can make that sacrifice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon
Wilson was a progressive, and many of the current problems in this country can be traced back to him. So go ahead, tie it to him.
Many of our countries problems can also be traced back to Bonzo Reagan.
I am against this. Broadband internet is not a human right.
Well neither is Health Care a human right!!! Sure it's nice to have, but why should I help pay for you? Free Cars, Free Babysitting service, Free to cheap help care, it goes on and on and on and you know what in the end happens. Services get worse and more expensive for those that pay!!! Every time you hear how the Government is cracking down on all the fraud and yet it continues!!! If you are using a Welfare card to go gamble or or Strip Bar like they have been doing, You sure as hell don't need Welfare!!!! We have more people on Government programs then during the great depression, by far under OBAMA. Where's the recovery or it's just more free stuff. This is how Democrats get elected, just give out more free stuff. We're trillions in debt, borrowing form China, but so what, more free stuff.
The whole Lifeline crap that pays for this is really a TAX!!! The Government can call it whatever they want, but it's just yet another TAX of of a zillion the taxpayers pay out every month. Where you just about half to work for free for the first 6 months to pay for all the Taxes. You start adding up State taxes, Federal Taxes, Property taxes, This type of Lifeline things which are Taxes, and on and on. There's so many hidden taxes you are paying for in the price of everything you buy on top of more taxes. We fought a Revolutionary War mostly because of Taxes!!! The whole Boston Tea party thing was abut TAXES and back then it was like 2%.
At some point you run out of other people's money to steal!!! The poor was helped by the Churches and then Government got involved.
Remember, the Universal Service Fund is not a tax. It's a mandatory percentage assessment on carrier gross revenues. But it's not a tax. So read their lips, no new taxes.
Of course it's a Tax!!! This is a well used one by Government. Evil Oil Company's that don't pay their fair share. Just TAX them more. Because they're EVIL!!!! What's really happening, they pay more, they pass it on to YOU and so it's really another tax on YOU!!! Instead of coming out and saying sorry, we have to raise you taxes even higher and get kicked out of office doing that, they play these silly games where you still get taxed, just in a round about way and you just sit there and take it and keep voting the person into office year after year after year.
All the people who think there should be no help for anyone in need... I bet they'd take the help when THEY need it.
I see the shopping carts of fat people with children in tow who pay with their items using foodstamps, and their carts are filled with items like ice cream, potato chips, sodas. These people are not in need, and if they need a phone or the internet, then they can easily scrape together the money if it was important to them. Let them go without buying a $200 pair of sneakers, I'm sure that they can make that sacrifice.
Comments
Remember all the “Reclassify Now!” banners during the net neutrality debates? Well, they snuck this in with it right under your noses. Remember how you supporters expounded about how net neutrality wouldn’t mean higher rates or fees? Boy did you get snookered.
So we now will have Obama Internet along with those Obama Phones. And I suppose what’s next is Obama Computers too. Free phone service, free Internet, free computers for our less fortunate but entitled citizens. And as a bonus they will now have more disposable income to spend on lottery tickets, cigarettes, alcohol, weed, and heroin. Pay some quack to get you on disability and you’re livin’ the good life.
And guess who gets to pay for it? Do I even need to ask?
Remember, the Universal Service Fund is not a tax. It's a mandatory percentage assessment on carrier gross revenues. But it's not a tax. So read their lips, no new taxes.
Then why is it listed on my bill as an additional fee that I have to pay? You can spin it all you want. It IS a tax as far as my pocketbook is concerned. We are becoming Greece. We want all these social programs but we want somebody else to pay for them. We are in debt up to our eyeballs, demanding this and that from the government, and someday the bill will come due just like Greece found out. I suspect the Chinese will not be as accommodating as the Germans are. What happens when WE are given an ‘austerity' ultimatum?
The point is valid regardless. If we're subsidizing poor people's internet at the federal level we don't also need to do so at the local level. How is that point lost on you?
Where in the article did it say we are subsidizing broadband at the local level?
Just because an ignorant voter calls it "obamaphone" does not make it true. Obama had nothing to do with it.
You're making it a political issue.
Like public education in a more general sense, we ALL benefit when out fellow citizens are more informed, not less. Fraud should be aggressively pursued, but all in all a modest investment in our national future. IMHO of course.
If you're reading this on a subsidized data plan, you're welcome! Hopefully you're giving something back to society besides a bill to pick up.
And here's the bright and very articulate woman and typical Obama voter who can claim credit for coining the term "Obamaphone".
Original Obamaphone Lady: Obama Voter Says Vote for Obama because he gives a free Phone
FAIL.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/10/the-obama-phone/
"A: No. Low-income households have been eligible for discounted telephone service for more than a decade [i.e. BUSH]. But the program is funded by telecom companies, not by taxes, and the president has nothing to do with it."
WILSON PHONES!
"
The president has no direct impact on the program, and one could hardly call these devices "Obama Phones," as the e-mail author does. This specific program, SafeLink, started under President George Bush, with grants from an independent company created under President Bill Clinton, which was a legacy of an act passed under President Franklin Roosevelt, which was influenced by an agreement reached between telecommunications companies and the administration of President Woodrow Wilson.
Wilson Phones, anyone?"
The point is valid regardless. If we're subsidizing poor people's internet at the federal level we don't also need to do so at the local level. How is that point lost on you?
A point to make to your local library board right quick then.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/10/the-obama-phone/
"A: No. Low-income households have been eligible for discounted telephone service for more than a decade. But the program is funded by telecom companies, not by taxes, and the president has nothing to do with it."
Loses all credibility right there. See our earlier USF Not a Tax discussion. "Fact" Check bought politician propaganda hook line and sinker in order to advance liberal causes like they usually do.
Also, if the President has "nothing" to do with it, then why is the USF regulated by the FCC (and not by telecom groups like CTIA), and why is the FCC led by political appointees... selected by the President?
If Fact Check actually checked into facts and not pushed an agenda, they'd write that the Bell System monopoly had a policy, under Teddy Vail of "universal service". In order to be granted the monopoly they had, they made an agreement to act like a utility. This means that expensive lines (in rural areas) would be subsidized by cheap lines (cities). Just like the power company or USPS, everybody paid the same, regardless of the actual cost of service. On top of that, schools and hospitals and such received discounted rates.
When the Bell System broke up in 1984, this internal system was nationalized into a program by the FCC. Under Democrats like Clinton and especially Obama, this system morphed into welfare, by giving service away to the poor.
I am against this. Broadband internet is not a human right.
Perhaps if you were poor you would think differently. Come to think of it food is not a human right either, right?
Lifeline is absurd to begin with. We're dealing with a cultural and political mentality that is so ass backwards: The more people dependent on government programs, the better. In fact, just the opposite is true.
The reason people are dependent on government programs is because the private sector believes profits for stock holders comes first and the poor should not even make a living wage. The poor are increasingly made from lower middle class people which have lost employment and lack higher education and the skills they need to be part of modern day (post industrial) America. I know many people that have sunken into this category, they have worked hard all their lives and are not lazy but if you need to see them as the villains to make sense of the world then I guess there is nothing I can say to change your mind.
Wilson was a progressive, and many of the current problems in this country can be traced back to him. So go ahead, tie it to him.
ObamaNet bringing the country closer to ruin by the nanosecond. Is there anything we won't give to those poors?
I see the shopping carts of fat people with children in tow who pay with their items using foodstamps, and their carts are filled with items like ice cream, potato chips, sodas. These people are not in need, and if they need a phone or the internet, then they can easily scrape together the money if it was important to them. Let them go without buying a $200 pair of sneakers, I'm sure that they can make that sacrifice.
Wilson was a progressive, and many of the current problems in this country can be traced back to him. So go ahead, tie it to him.
Many of our countries problems can also be traced back to Bonzo Reagan.
I am against this. Broadband internet is not a human right.
Well neither is Health Care a human right!!! Sure it's nice to have, but why should I help pay for you? Free Cars, Free Babysitting service, Free to cheap help care, it goes on and on and on and you know what in the end happens. Services get worse and more expensive for those that pay!!! Every time you hear how the Government is cracking down on all the fraud and yet it continues!!! If you are using a Welfare card to go gamble or or Strip Bar like they have been doing, You sure as hell don't need Welfare!!!! We have more people on Government programs then during the great depression, by far under OBAMA. Where's the recovery or it's just more free stuff. This is how Democrats get elected, just give out more free stuff. We're trillions in debt, borrowing form China, but so what, more free stuff.
The whole Lifeline crap that pays for this is really a TAX!!! The Government can call it whatever they want, but it's just yet another TAX of of a zillion the taxpayers pay out every month. Where you just about half to work for free for the first 6 months to pay for all the Taxes. You start adding up State taxes, Federal Taxes, Property taxes, This type of Lifeline things which are Taxes, and on and on. There's so many hidden taxes you are paying for in the price of everything you buy on top of more taxes. We fought a Revolutionary War mostly because of Taxes!!! The whole Boston Tea party thing was abut TAXES and back then it was like 2%.
At some point you run out of other people's money to steal!!! The poor was helped by the Churches and then Government got involved.
Remember, the Universal Service Fund is not a tax. It's a mandatory percentage assessment on carrier gross revenues. But it's not a tax. So read their lips, no new taxes.
Of course it's a Tax!!! This is a well used one by Government. Evil Oil Company's that don't pay their fair share. Just TAX them more. Because they're EVIL!!!! What's really happening, they pay more, they pass it on to YOU and so it's really another tax on YOU!!! Instead of coming out and saying sorry, we have to raise you taxes even higher and get kicked out of office doing that, they play these silly games where you still get taxed, just in a round about way and you just sit there and take it and keep voting the person into office year after year after year.
Well neither is Health Care a human right!!!
I agree. Nobody should get free healthcare and nobody should be forced to pay for healthcare and govt should not be in the business of healthcare.
Of course it's a Tax!!!
Yes, it obviously is a tax. Liberal propaganda does not work on smart people.
Where in Manhattan did you see that?