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Thursday, July 16, 2009

Colorado Planning Free Cell Phones
For Low-Income and Indigent

Colorado has a plan in the works that will give FREE CELL PHONES to low-income earners and the impoverished. And they are FREE! FREE! FREE CELL PHONES! Wow! What a deal!

From Mobile Crunch:

    ...a Colorado plan [is] to give free cellphones to low income people. Similar programs, using landline telephones, have existed for some time, paid for by a federal tax on telephones. So it’s not like this is new money we’re talking about, you know, being used to help people [sic].

    [Here are some comments].

    [...]

      Why don’t we just give them all free cable TV…and a free Tivo, so that they won’t ever have to worry about missing an episode of Oprah.

      This is why we are broke! Since when is a cell phone a necessity of life? Is cable, satellite service? What is next? Time for a tax revolt-the producers are getting sick of pulling the cart for the non-producers of the country. Time for a tax revolt.

    And so on. It’s a bit of an overreaction, yes, especially when there’s no new money involved. It’s an existing tax.

Well, there is no new money involved so far. But we all know how quickly this can can change. Never underestimate the Liberals to add another "few cents" onto an already existing tax. "Oh, it's ONLY another two-cents added to your phone bill."



The money comes from the Universal Service Fund. The Denver Post:

    The money — more than $800 million in subsidies were paid last year for low-income phone service across the country — comes from the Universal Service Fund, a tax on all telephone lines. Of that amount, Coloradans received nearly $3.2 million in low-income subsidies.

    TracFone's subsidized program, called Safelink Wireless, gives users at least 68 minutes of free cell service each month — in Colorado, it would be 83 minutes — and unlimited access to 911 service even if the minutes are used up.

    Users also get a free Motorola phone worth $50, according to the company's PUC filing. As long as subscribers are on the welfare rolls, they get the phone subsidy.

Did someone say a redistribution of wealth? "No, no, no, Dave...the cell phones are FREE!" Oh...Free? Uh-huh. I understand.

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