Remember the ‘Obamaphone’ program, in which the government subsidized cellphones and cellphone call and texting minutes? Well, shockingly, it’s actually super corrupt!
A new report from the Government Accountability Office puts the program on blast, finding that a third of those enrolled may not be qualified to receive free cell service.
The report was requested by Sen. Clair McCaskill (D-MO.), and even she was horrified by the massive waste and abuse going on in the program, saying:
“A complete lack of oversight is causing this program to fail the American taxpayer — everything that could go wrong is going wrong.”
She continued:
“We’re currently letting phone companies cash a government check every month with little more than the honor system to hold them accountable, and that simply can’t continue.”
You know it’s bad when even Democrats are disturbed by wasteful government spending.
10.6 million people have an Obamaphone, but as many as 36% may not qualify. 5,500 people had two phones, and 6,400 phones were registered to people who had died.
And get this- when GOA investigators submitted fraudulent applications for a phone, 12 of 19 phone carriers approved a phone.
The program didn’t start under Obama, but Obama did oversee a tripling of the budgetfor the program, from $800 million in 2009 to $2.2 billion per year in 2012.
Remember this lady who said we should vote for Obama because of the free phones?:
The program does not use direct tax dollars, but rather forces cell phone companies to add extra fees to customer’s bills to subsidize those who are in the program.
The program is administered by the Federal Communications Commission, which had been warned about potential waste in the past. In response to the latest report, the FCC promised to takes steps mitigate the fraud. We’ll see if that actually happens. I’m betting no.
This government offices are never held to accountability because the media refuses to report on them- that’s why we have to get the word out by sharing 1 million times!
(via: Liberty Writers)
