In 2008 the free phone plan cost was 900 million dollars. Today in 2013, it has grown to 2.2 billion. You heard right. The Federal government, that is heading down the road of sequester, where everything is evenly cut across the board is now spending 2.2 Billion on free phones. I should say you are when you pay the small fee on your monthly phone bill. Set up by the FCC many years ago to provide Americans access to communication. The phones were largely designed to give access to folks who have none.
The well intentioned program is not unlike other free government programs. Once established they take on an entitlement mentality never ending, unless they fall under their own weight. For now lets focus on the free phones.
Did you realize the FCC allowed self assessment to determine eligibility? This according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal which points out that clients could determine on their own if they were eligible for a free phone?
Most of the time, food stamps, living below the poverty line was the determining factor. As you might guess the program exploded under this tepid scrutiny, resulting in people screaming for an Obama phone and some saying it's easy to get and others saying they have multiple phones.
As we ponder sequestration could we save a little money and demand that you purchase your own cell phone if you need one? If that's too much ask, consider many childhood memories of parents and grandparents growing up without a phone in their home.
Entitlements have to be cut, but how can we cut when the government just created a new one, the "Free Phone."
Just a thought.....
