Posted on 09/08/2009 6:17:15 AM PDT by elephant
I just called the Congressional toll free number: 800-828-0498 and the first thing that I heard was a recorded message urging the caller to contact their Congress Critter to ask them to pass health care reform bill. I then received the operator and asked her about the message. I was advised that the message was paid for by lobbyist. Is this supposed to be done with our tax payer money?
If a lobbyist paid for it, then its not taxpayer money. A better question is why is the toll free number meant to support the entire United States Congress being used to advance the political agenda of the majority party?
Thank you for the correction! Yes, that is my question.
Please call and ask why this is happening on a gov’t switchboard.
“A better question is why is the toll free number meant to support the entire United States Congress being used to advance the political agenda of the majority party?”
AMEN...We need to make some noise on this!!
I think that is a lobbyist's phone number that they use to look up the proper Rep. or Senator and forward the call. It got out as a general Congressional phone number, which it is not. I don't think Congress has ever had a toll free phone number.
spend the lobbyists money and call every single congress dupe that you can and ask them about why obama put through Van Jones when he didn’t pass national security clearance...or at least WH counsel had a problem with him.
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/08/valerie-jarretts-show
that has to be a violation of law somewhere.
I would never believe that America has fallen so low. This is propaganda at it’s best.
Congress doesn’t have a toll free number. They are all 202 area code. You must have gotten that number through a web site.
I, too, just called and also heard the pro-health reform message. When I asked who was in charge of the phones, the operator said she didn’t know what message I was talking about and hung up on me.
Called the Office of the Clerk of Congress-very helpful-who said the Sen Sgt at Arms who is in charge of the switchboard.
called there and another very helpful mgr of telecom answered my question.
BOTTOM LINE- Congress has NO toll free numbers.
Anyone can create a toll-free number-insert their message and then transfer to the Congressional switchboard. He told me that there are many toll-free numbers that connect to the switchboard and there is no law which prevents him from blocking them.
I did a search of toll free numbers to the switchboard and found many, sponsored by different groups, so there’s confirmation of part of what he told me.
Now, how do we get a law blocking these calls from being connected?
For my small business, I have a toll free number that I use. That number can be configured to "forward" to any telephone number that I chose. When I'm at home, it rings my home phone. When I go out for the day, I go online and change the forwarding to my cell phone. If I travel out of state, I can keep it on my cell, or if I have a direct number where I'm staying, I can forward it to that number. There's also an option for an "announcement" to be played before the call is forwarded. The service runs me about $3 per month for the first 100 minutes and an additional per minute charge above the 100 minutes.
I'm not aware of a toll free number that is actually funded by the House itself (and therefore a direct number). I have seen several advocacy ads that end with "Call Congress toll free at 8xx-xxx-xxxx and tell them you support/oppose this issue). Those numbers are forwarding number that forward to the 202-224-3121 published number, possibly with an announcement from the group that is actually paying for the call and the toll free number.
Also, it seems that the last time I checked, there were a few congress critters that had their own toll free numbers direct to their own offices. This isn't universal, and it would be paid for out of the individual district's budget for their congressional office(s).
People just need to use their brains.
We don’t need more regulations.
So some clueless person thinks Congress would have a TOLL FREE NUMBER?
Good Lord. And we think we are educated?
to read later
Sending this to Drudge...this is unreal
Thank you for your kind words.
I have a feeling this is a number bought and paid for by a third party that redirects to the official 202 number.
I can’t find it listed officially on any gov website but it is all over left wing blogs.
The one government website reference I found was a statement by the ANA to use this number to call in support.
http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:6lKSjb0szxMJ:majorityleader.house.gov/docUploads/CHIP%2520Reauthorization%2520Support%2520Letters%2520and%2520Releases.pdf+site:house.gov+800-828-0498&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
I just did some digging, 800-828-0498 was registered through a 800 service provider company called Kall8 out of Seattle, Washington. This is a small teleco reseller, so I really doubt the government would use them over a major company.
Oddly, this tool says it was registered to a “Best Travel” out of Texas.
http://inter800.com/cgi-bin/kwd800
However, Best Travel Inc’s corporate contact info is.. wait for it.. Chicago.
http://www.besttravel.com/corporate_services.htm
Chicago? I would never have guessed it ;)
Nice work!
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