A government-supplied cell phone can be a good thing for a person down on his luck. But did you know that every child in the Allentown School District, rich or poor, is entitled to a free government cell phone? Here's the story, which comes to us courtesy of Scott Armstrong.
Last week my son told me he heard about a government program for a free cell phone. We Googled “free government cell phone” and found this link. When we investigated the link we were surprised to see read that one of the qualifiers for the program was having a child get a free lunch at school. Well, every child gets a free lunch in the ASD, so to test how lax the program was I applied. Today, I received my free government phone. It is that easy. This is an outrageous waste of taxpayer money and a clear demonstration of how wasteful and careless the federal government is with our tax dollars. I've sent you a picture of the phone. I will of course not activate the phone but return it to the government through my local congressional representative.
45 comments:
Excuse Herr O'Hare, how is a comment that refers to this silly wasteful program as "cuckoo", worth one of your deletes? You condemn others for censoring and deleting and you do it as well.
So delete if you wish to delete but I still think this program is "CUCKOO"!!!
I needed more than one word to know what the hell you meant.
Bernie,
What's the problem? Every member of Congress, Senate, staff member, State Representative and who knows who else gets a FREE cellphone, Hey, they may as well get one! lol.
Bernie, You're right, this is a pure waste of tax payer money. Lets think of this when you hear "There's nothing left to cut"
I do not believe that owning a cell phone is an entitlement. This sounds like a waste of money to me.
i wantto hear Geeting or some other moron defend this. hta should be good reading
Where's is the link so I can get mine? Now I can get rid of the track phone I have been paying for. This is overdue.
Allentown Democrat Voter
No Texter Left Behind
Could be worse. Wait! It is worse. There's another new program that will eventually give away free internet: CheapInternet.com
I agree with Anon 6:47.
There can be absolutely no question What-Am-I-Gettings-From-Big-Government? will be able to justify this all day long (in his mind, at least).
And, that will be funnier than all hell!
Always vote Democrat --- they have the free sh-t YOU need.
:)
God bless Barack Hussein Obama and the Entitlement Mentality he works so hard to push.
About time this country with the extremely guilty past it will never escape got some genuine Fairness and Justice!
FOUR MORE YEARS
Every thing should be free! Anything you want (need) should be government provided or mandated that business provide it for free.
Obama has made an entitlement mentality a true religion.
Nothing is impossible to receive if you believe you can make someone else pay for it.
The problem is eventually the liberals run out of other people's money and the ponzi game collapses.
Everything will be free.
Obama is going to pound on Romney.
Whoo Hoo!
I need a new flat-screen TV ...
I am sure none of these phone are used in the commision of felonies such as delivery of controlled substances too.
For all of you Republican's blaming this on Obama, it's worth noting that this program started under George W Bush. the first cell phones went out in 2008, before Obama was even the democratic nominee. Bet Charlie Dent is happy to know he was our congressman when this all went down.
So there you have it: a Republican waste of money.
Bush spent like a drunken sailor ... in other words, like a proud Democrat.
So there you have it.
Who was in charge of the House of Representatives and Senate in 2008?
:)
What I want to know about is why every student in ASD gets a free lunch. THAT'S a waste of taxpayer money if Armstrong can indeed afford a lunch for his child. Is Armstrong paying for his kid's lunch? Is he returning that money to his congressman?
Keeping the underclass in the technological loop isn't necessarily a bad thing. Giving rich kids free lunches definitely is.
"Who was in charge of the House of Representatives and Senate in 2008?"
The funding ground work was laid in 1996 under a Republican Congress (ever look at your cell phone bill... see that line about federal taxes... that's the funding source for all of this). The authorization for the funding to be redirected from land-line installation/subsidies in rural communities to free cell phones... take a guess at the year. I'll go grab a cup of coffee and come back with the answer:
2006...before the election! Republican President, Republican Congress. I LOVE IT WHEN REPUBLICANS DISCOVER IT WASN'T OBAMA'S FAULT!!!!
So, really, we can thank Newt Gingrich for putting the tax in motion and then Rick Santorum and George Bush for putting the free cell phones on the market. I'd personally love to thank Scott Armstrong, who was head of the Allentown Republican Party when Bush and the Republicans were elected in the 2004 election. Your hard work is truly appreciated. I'm sure you never saw that history coming back to roost when you made this discovery.
Don't try and explain reality to the teabaggers. Their hatred of the first black President is without logic or reason. Remember this is the crowd that gave us Zulu warrior posters with bones in noses. the6 gave us Muslim, communist foreign born and all the other nonsense they thrive on. If a mouse was running in the Capitol, it would be Obama's fault.
It is like the old Nazi comparisons. Anytime some silly program is discovered it is Obama. This is a stupid program and is the case with many of these things that have occurred for many,many years now that it is in the light of day I have a feeling it will change dramatically or go away. Unfortunately, the teabaggers won't. Their brand of cry and hate will go on and on.
That is why Obama will win in November. But please keep hate alive.
I thought Bill Clinton was the first black President?
May I ask what a person's color has to do with anything in this day and age?
The charge of racism is the final refuge of a bankrupt debater.
"The charge of racism is the final refuge of a bankrupt debater."
Blah, blah, blah... now that the truth comes out, the tea partiers are looking for anything to keep the party going.
Since we learned that it was Gringrich, Santorum and Bush that gave us this fine bit of waste, where are the cries now? All the screams of entitlement seem to have vanished. The first reaction was to somehow blame a liberal blogger, but as soon as a liberal points out that this waste is the R's fault, the screams have stopped.
Go fig.
I know how good it makes lefties feel to "catch" the right something like this, but this cell phone program actually got its start under the teflon Rock Star, Bill Clinton. Look it up.
And this exemplifies the problem with our government and entitlements. Bush and his ilk could not take it away once it was in place, because the free cell phone users represent potential votes, and opponents would surely make an issue out of shutting this program down.
Looked it up. Authorized in 1996 by a republican congress and then expanded in 2006 by a republican congress and president. If the R's cared about waste, they didnt have to authorize it in congress when newt was speaker and santorum was in the senate and they could have stopped it in 2006 or 2008. They didnt. So they are as responsible for the waste as clinton. Next!
What’s being lost in this dialogue is the fact that this program has apparently no oversight. In that case whether the program is good or bad or was started by one political party or another isn’t the issue. The potential for massive fraud is what should be a concern to every taxpayer. It just may be that the bureaucrats laissez-faire approach to this federal handout is emblematic of government programs in general.
Scott Armstrong
Scott, we see the problems. Why did your party totally fail to ensure that oversite. It would have been nice for the party in power when it took effect to be responsible. But i guess the GOP is more interestes in talking a good game than actually doing something about it. Witness the failed Bush II presidency you guys supported and continue to defend.
anon 2:18 is my new hero. rock on!
Hey, lets send another 2 Million to the Arlen Spectoer Library!
Scott, this is one of those programs we can all agree is just a goof. Now if you could get your teabaggers under control, maybe just maybe we could all work together to stop this shit.
But no, we sill use it as another Limbaugh moment to demonize Democrats and condemn that Watusi Muslim President we have.
a real shame.
Although Scott is a staunch Republican, I did not see him point a finger at either party. He instead suggested we do something about stopping an obvious abuse. it appears to me that you and some others are getting partisan and slinging arrows at each other, but Scott merely pointed to an abuse and suggested WE fix it. Why don't we work on that instead of blaming Clinton or Bush?
Bernie, that's all well and good, but until noon, the comments lined up bashing Obama, using the Gingrich inspired "entitlement president" rhetoric that the tea party loves to use. Yup, it was all Obama's fault. Until we learned that it wasn't. Scott then attempted to dodge that point by blaming boogiemen bureaucrats. Fair enough, but the rhetoric was already exposed untrue and the tea partiers were long done commenting. It's convenient to cry "stop pointing fingers" when your allies, after doing just that, have been exposed as goofballs.
Personally, I'd love to fix this abuse and welcome the opportunity to repeal the funding source: the federal tax on cell phones. knowing that it survived 2 full presidencies and the turn over of congress' partisanship, I'm not confident. And since our local congressman (charlie dent) was in office when the free cell phones were instituted, I doubt he's going to do much to publicize the waste and fraud.
The abuse we need to stop is Scott Armstrong's kids getting free lunches. I still haven't heard whether he has returned these funds to the school district so as not to raise taxes by that amount.
well they aren't REALLY Government Cell Phones, they are provided by and paid for by private companies. Some companies have a "universal service" charge, and that is what it is put towards. Others just take it from their operating expenses. This money goes into those non-profit cell phone companies that provide the phones and service. But it is something that the government required, so it is really one of those how you define "it" things i guess...
That being said every time I pay my cell phone bill, the idea of this pisses me off.
You want four more years of this?
Go for it, re-elect 0-bama!
Always interesting when the Left goes off on the "Teabaggers".
Always interesting that the Homosexuals, etc., are never, ever insulted by the fact that THEIR Lifestyle is being ruthlessly mocked by the Dummyrats.
Not to mention so often.
But, whatever.
Avoiding Hypocrisy was never the strong point of the Left.
Now, if you will excuse me, I am off to attend a lecture by some Holier-Than-Thou Progressive Liberal ... I think today's topic is Tolerance.
It should be most interesting.
How much are YOU paying for gas these days?
Remember, that IS NOT 0-bama's fault.
Nothing is, ever.
Why is GITMO still open?
I thought Obama promised blah, blah, blah
Dude, it's either Obama or Romney/Santorum. The choice is pretty obvious to anyone not a complete nitwit.
How much did it cost the taxpayer to run your little experiment?
And nothing is not the answer.
There was processing and postage handling and colosal time wasting on the tax payers dime..
I'll call Dent let him know and he can back charge you.
Pigpen... You are off the deep end. Even after learning this is the product of the careless right, you attack obama.
Pigpen revels in his teabagger status. Leave the guy alone.
Hey 9am anonymous coward,
I sign my name, when you get the guts to man up and do the same people might put some merit to your words. Until then you are just another internet coward.
Scott Armstrong
Pigpen... You are off the deep end. Even after learning this is the product of the careless right, you attack obama.
So did you give back the free lunch money or not? Aren't you outraged at yourself?!!!
Coward.
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