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Old     (barry)      Join Date: Apr 2002       08-04-2011, 11:08 AM Reply   
Pennsylvanians on public assistance now have a new 'civil right' -- free cell phones. Meanwhile, the rest of us get to pay higher cell bills as a result.

Recently, a federal government program called the Universal Service Fund came to the Keystone State and some residents are thrilled because it means they can enjoy 250 minutes a month and a handset for free, just because they don't have the money to pay for it. Through Assurance Wireless and SafeLink from Tracfone Wireless these folks get to reach out and touch someone while the cost of their service is paid for by everyone else. You see, the telecommunications companies are funding the Universal Service Fund to the tune of $4 billion a year because the feds said they have to and in order to recoup their money, the companies turn around and hike their fees to paying customers. But those of use paying for the free service for the poor, should be happy about this infuriating situation, says Gary Carter, manager of national partnerships for Assurance, because "the program is about peace of mind." Free cell service means "one less bill that someone has to pay, so they can pay their rent or for day care...it is a right to have peace of mind," Cater explained.

Well, the telecommunications companies don't seem to love providing this 'right' to poor folks because they are trying to renegotiate the deal with the FCC. The telecommunications companies like Verizon and AT&T want more paying customers, but their desire to reform their deal with the feds dovetails nicely with the political ideology of the current FCC chairman Julian Genachowski, who like all Obama administration flunkies sees 'rights' where others see 'priviledges'. Just listen to how the agency put the question of providing broadband and cell service to those in rural and poor communities. "The goal of reform is to provide everyone with affordable voice and broadband," the agency said.

Between 14 million and 24 million Americans lack access to broadband, "and immediate prospects for deployment to them are bleak," the FCC said in a report last year. "Many of these Americans are poor or live in rural areas that will remain unserved without reform of the universal service program and other changes," the report said.

But who says that cheap or free broadband is anything more than a luxury?

Well, another Obama flunkie, Rahm Emanuel, that's who. As we reported in June , the new mayor of Chicago was all excited to proclaim the wonderful news of free internet service to poor kids in Chicago's worst neighborhoods. And how could Mayor Emanuel pay for this new 'civil right'? Well, because the federal government extorted the money from Comcast when it wanted to buy NBC-Universal. Once again FCC chairman Genachowski was all about "helping the kids" by forcing the internet provider to give poor kids free netbooks, laptops, and internet service, indefinitely. And who is going to pay for this gift? Well, of course the rest of us poor saps who actually pay our bills.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/capito...#ixzz1U0XJjKRu
Old     (psudy)      Join Date: Dec 2003       08-04-2011, 11:51 AM Reply   
Its about time to run these a$$h4ls out on a rail. We are broke, and this kind of crap isn't on the chopping block? Come on 2012.
Old     (ttrigo)      Join Date: Dec 2004       08-04-2011, 1:48 PM Reply   
I would love to see a Breakdown of what the avg american thinks of as a right vs. A privilege. Cell phones definitely fall under privilege in my book.
This administration is an effing joke!
Old     (magic)      Join Date: Mar 2002       08-04-2011, 2:29 PM Reply   
wow... a mobile phone is not a utility let alone a right.
Old     (cadunkle)      Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: NJ       08-05-2011, 1:12 PM Reply   
If this was the initiative of Tracfone and exclusively subsidized by their paying customers, fine... Any business can run itself as it sees fit. If Tracfone could do this and still make a profit while maintaining cheaper plans for paying customers I'd have no qualms about using their service.

The problem is government forcing this down our throats. No individual has a right that in order to exercise it something must be taken from another. You don't have the right to a cell phone, as that takes money out of someone else's pockets.

No individual has the right to health care, as that either takes money out of someone else's pocket to pay for it, benefiting doctors and medical staff as well as the recipient of those services. Alternatively doctors must offer services for free, essentially slavery as if they turned down non-paying customers the government would use violence to put an end to that. The reality is somewhere in the middle. Government forces doctors to offer medical services for a lower price to those who can't afford to pay full price, and the rest of us subsidize that lower price.

No individual has the right to food. To grow, hunt process, distribute that food costs money and labor. The result is essentially the same as that of the medical care situation. Slavery and subsidization at gunpoint.

The bottom line is no one has a right to something that takes by force something from someone else. The bleeding heart liberals think the masses would be starving and dying of minor sicknesses or injuries. This was not the case before all of these socialist programs were implemented. I don't know any doctor who would refuse to help anyone with a life threatening sickness or injury, they would work out a price the patient could afford and if they didn't pay not worry about it. I also don't know anyone who would turn away a starving person and not offer food. Things weren't all gloom and doom before socialists and neocons got to be in power.

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