Posted on 06/22/2012 12:49:39 PM PDT by Kaslin
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Peter in Rochester. New York. Great to have you on the program, how are you, sir?
CALLER: Rush, I wanted to give your millions and millions of listeners a heads up as to what we're up against. I'm a doctor in Upstate New York here, and I was seeing a patient in a room and the patient said to me: "Can you hand me my Obama phone?" So I said, "What?"
RUSH: I think I know where you're going here. I think I've heard this, go ahead.
CALLER: Well, I had not heard of that. And so I asked, "What's that?" And he said, "This is a free cell phone for poor people and we get minutes and everything." So that was all the conversation I had with him. But it occurred to me that if these Obama phones are going out all over the country --
RUSH: They are.
CALLER: -- then would it be hard to believe that there's going to be text messages and phone calls and all kinds of things?
RUSH: No. In fact, let me give you a shocking statistic. I read this just this week. Obama has 27 million Facebook friends, followers. Romney has 1.8 million. The Twitter numbers are not as large. But the supremacy by the Obama campaign on those social sites is overwhelming. And with these Obama phones, of course they can send texts out. Absolutely they can. They probably do. But the same thing happens if you follow Obama on Twitter or Facebook. It's not to say that everybody following Obama is a lap dog, eager beaver, can't get enough of Obama, but that's how many people have signed up and there's always varying degrees of interest. Everybody following me on Facebook is rabid, for example, but they're not that way for Obama. We first heard about these Obama phones, I was shocked, just like you are when you discovered it, last year sometime, and I had no idea. And you're right, these people get minutes. It's all paid for. The phone is paid for. The usage is paid for. By us.
CALLER: Around election time I'm wondering what kind of messages are going to be going out, "Meet at such and such a place. Come here get a carton of cigarettes and we'll take you to the polls," blah, blah, blah.
RUSH: I think your imagination is the only boundary limit.
CALLER: (laughing) Oh, God.
RUSH: I do. However they could use this. And that's a good catch. Did you talk to this guy about it at all? Did you just let it drop?
CALLER: No, I let it drop.
RUSH: He asked you to hand him his Obama phone?
CALLER: Yeah, I was talking to him, and in the context of his medical care he was going to need to make a phone call to family. So he asked me to hand him the Obama phone.
RUSH: Let me just tell you. Here are the details of this. There's a website ObamaPhone.net. I'm going to read to you: "The Obama Phone Program. What exactly is the free Obama phone? The free Obama phone is a program that is meant to help the financially unstable who cannot afford access to a cell phone. Communication should not be limited to people in relation to what they are able to afford." They actually call it the Obama phone. And here are some frequently asked questions from the Obama phone website.
How do I Get an Obama Phone?
What is the Obama Phone?
Who Qualifies for an Obama Phone?
Who Pays for the Obama Phone?
Is the Obama Phone Real?
Now, in the "who pays for the Obama phone," in the Obama phone questions: "Lifeline is a government sponsored program, but who is paying for it. Some people claim that the government is using taxpayer's money to run this program, however, the claim is false. Universal Service Fund (USF) which is administers by Federal Communication Commission along the Universal Service Administration Company (USAC), pays for the Lifeline phone assistance program."
So you and I are paying for Obama phones via the charges that are tacked on to our phone bill for the Universal Service Fund. The Al Gore tax, do you remember that tax? It's still on your phone bill. To wire farms for land line phones. We are still paying that tax. And then there's Internet taxes, Internet access for the poor and number of other things. The outfit that administers that is the Universal Service Fund.
If you can decipher your phone bill you pay every month a tax that goes into the Universal Service Fund and that's what's buying Obama phones and providing service for the people who use them. And, of course, it's known who has them. It's known what their numbers are. And they can be mass texted, individually, I would assume. But, look, before you panic, folks, this is not new. This has been out there for years, and Obama is in dire straits. When you hear about this, and you think, "How do we fight this? Oh my gosh."
These are the people that voted for him anyway in large measure.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Folks, this cell phone problem. Government-provided cell phones is not a new program. I don't know how long it's been around, but it's not a new program. Calling them "Obama phones" is new. That's what's new about this. And, of course, that's being done purposely to make the people think that these free phones are coming from Obama's stash, that they're personal gifts from Obama. And, in fact, the Obama phone site looks like Obama's campaign site. It has the logo and all that stuff.
END TRANSCRIPT
Yes, their “free” phone is paid for by people who actually think it’s the right thing to do to pay for their phone service.
IE, the culture that thinks it’s normal to pay for what you use also pays for the culture that thinks it’s entitled to free stuff.
I have no idea. I just thought it was interesting that it started during the Bush years.
This is sickening.
I didn’t think my head could explode, but now I’m not so sure.
Does it matter so much who started it as it does who is taking credit for it and getting his name attached to it?
[ This program started during the Bush years according to a caller on Levin’s show the other day. ]
Were they called Obama phones then? That is an outrage.
I didn’t think my head could explode, but now I’m not so sure.
It sure is because they will not use it for the purpose it is given to them which is for emergency calls
"High ( a little Choom Gang reference their) this is Barack Obama, and I urge you to go vote on Wednesday November 7th:...."
I'm just sayin' .:-)...
Wish there was a way to hack into Obama’s Facebook and delete it. I am sure much of the people on there are from 2008 and wouldn’t re-join.
Q: Has the Obama administration started a program to use “taxpayer money” to give free cell phones to welfare recipients?
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.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/10/the-obama-phone/
Let’s keep it real around here....
Actually, the fee that funds it was created during Clinton's presidency.
The Universal Service Fund (USF) was created by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1997 to meet Congressional universal service goals as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The 1996 Act states that all providers of telecommunications services should contribute to federal universal service in some equitable and nondiscriminatory manner; there should be specific, predictable, and sufficient Federal and State mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service; all schools, classrooms, health care providers, and libraries should, generally, have access to advanced telecommunications services; and finally, that the Federal-State Joint Board and the FCC should determine those other principles that, consistent with the 1996 Act, are necessary to protect the public interest. As of the third quarter of 2012, the USF fee, which changes quarterly, equals 15.7 percent of a telecom company's interstate and end-user revenues. Recent quarterly USF fees can be found at http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/contribution-factor-quarterly-filings-universal-service-fund-usf-management-support. [1]Wikipedia linkOn October 27, 2011, the FCC approved a six-year transfer process that would transition money from the Universal Service Fund High-Cost Program to a new $4.5 billion a year Connect America Fund for broadband Internet expansion, effectively putting an end to the USF High-Cost Fund by 2018.[2][3]
No it is not. They have been around for eight years that I know of.
There was a previous program that provide cell phones to the poor but they only dialed 911. Maybe that is where all the stupid calls to 911 come from?
There are also several charities that offer free cell phones and minutes.
I strongly object to the phrase "Obama phone" and will be contacting my congress critter because this is government funds being used to campaign which is against the law.
This is not new. The phones and the minutes are free to anyone who qualifies for Food Stamps and/or Medicaid. That’s a lot of phones.
According to the Fact check link in post#15 by Freeper An American it started in 2008, the last year of President Bush’s Presidency
Clinton years. Don't blame Dubya. Blame Gore.
This does help a few, but only those who qualify.
I qualify.
But I don't have one.
Are they really this “All In”? Do they not realize that even if Obama wins re-election, ther ewill eventually be a Republican President who will have a pipeline to all Entitlement Voter Block?
Are they really this “All In”? Do they not realize that even if Obama wins re-election, ther ewill eventually be a Republican President who will have a pipeline to all Entitlement Voter Block?
Yea, all Statists to varying degrees. Both Bushes were Statists (ADA, Medicare Part-D, No Child Left Behind), their legacy proves that.
If only we had such men as Cleveland. Upon vetoing the Texas Seed Bill Cleveland wrote,
I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution; and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit.
How wonderful it would be if we elected Presidents and members of Congress that deeply revered the Constitution and the belief in severely limited government?
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