FCC Proposes To Extend So-Called "Obamaphone" Program To Broadband

jfruh writes: The FCC's Lifeline program subsidizes phone service for very poor Americans; it gained notoriety under the label "Obamaphone," even though the program started under Reagan and was extended to cell phones under Clinton. Now the FCC is proposing that the program, which is funded by a fee on telecom providers, be extended to broadband, on the logic that high-speed internet is as necessary today as telephone service was a generation ago.

Comments

Re:Amazing

[Nyder]

I find it amazing that not only is cable TV a "right", deserved by all, now broadband is also a "right".

/ Yo dude, check out my guv'mint subsidised Facebook post! // Yo dude, you should look into some guv'mint subsidised belts /// Yo dude, check out the brusin' I layed on my baby mama for telling me I should buy a belt!!

Overreact much?

Cable TV isn't considered a right and the Government does not give it away to poor people. Poor, can't afford Cable TV? Life sucks, you get over the air.

Nice try though.

Ronnie Phone

[PopeRatzo]

Just for the record, the "Obamaphone" program has a name. It's called the "Lifeline Assistance Program" and was started in the 1980s by...Ronald Reagan. It has nothing to do with Obama.

https://www.fcc.gov/guides/lif...

http://www.snopes.com/politics...

http://gawker.com/5947133/the-...

Re:How about import duties?

[__aaclcg7560]

It's time Washington works within a budget like everyone else.

Yet we vote out every politician who offers to balance the budget by raising taxes, vote in every politician who promises to expand services without a word on balancing the budget, and borrow trillions of dollars to maintain the status quo. If you want to change Washington, look in the mirror.

Re:other people's money

[CaptQuark]

If you read the full article, this $9.25 subsidy only applies to people ALREADY receiving it for phone service. The only change described in the article would be to allow those people to apply the subsidy to cell phone or broadband service instead. I assume there would be a few people that currently qualify but don't receive the subsidy because they don't have a land line, but $9.25 would barely cover the cheapest broadband plan the companies would offer.

~~

Re: other people's money

[silentcoder]

You realise this won't cost you a cent right ? This is the exact same subsidy Reagan instituted with no increase. Just permission to allocate it to a different service.

Re:How about import duties?

[dywolf]

Please. the government isn't even close to living outside its means. Extreme deficits only came about because politicians started to insist on cutting taxes. This country had no trouble paying for everything the government did, even while providing almost precisely the same services and social programs we currently do. and the economy and the average citizen not only was doing fine, but was more prosperous than he is today, even with the higher tax burden.