The Obama Phone

Who’s paying for your cell phone? I know what I pay. For my wife, myself, and my son, including minutes, texting and data tagged to two smartphones out of three: $230.00/month. This past week a video has been making the rounds about a Cleveland voter who said all of Cleveland has an Obama Phone. It took me more than a few seconds to realize she was talking about cell phones which the government is now providing to folks. She also offered this political commentary: Romney sucks. What’s really scary is that one million Ohioans, a little under 1/10th the population, are using Obama Phones at a cost to you and me of $26.9 million/quarter and rising…or $107 million/year…just for Ohio.

You pay for this bit of government largesse through a line item on your phone bill marked FUSF, or the Federal Universal Service Fund, as calculated by the FCC to 1) help keep local telephone rates affordable for all customers; 2) support telecommunications services in schools, public libraries, and rural health-care facilities, and 3) subsidize local service to high cost areas and low income customers. Oh yes…and to pay for Obama Phones.

To the government’s credit, it has supposedly been trying to cut back on this particular expenditure by reducing duplicate and/or fraudulent phones. But the amount of phones given out in Ohio seems to be on the rise notwithstanding. $26.9 million in the first quarter 2012 vs. $15 million in the first quarter 2011 which the government says is due to the ballooning population on food stamps, one of the Obama Phone criteria.  Of course the telephone companies are making out like bandits. They are basically charging for bandwidth (re: air). No skin off their backs. The more customers the merrier so long as somebody pays the freight. And hey….Ohio is a battleground state. What better state to hand out the Obama Phones?

In all seriousness, nobody begrudges folks in need of help a cell phone. The limits imposed on usage are stringent. These kinds of “conveniences” are almost necessities today especially if there are children. On the other hand, there is something unsettling about a woman appearing on You Tube screaming the praises of Obama because he gave her a phone.

At the end of the day there is no free phone. Somebody has to pay for it. Therein lies the problem. This woman got a free phone. Chances are she is getting lots of other government assistance. She is probably getting food stamps. If she has kids they are probably getting free lunches, breakfasts, and maybe even dinner notwithstanding the food stamps. In Mahoning County, she could probably get free transportation on the WRTA. Medical services are likely provided by Medicaid…on and on and on.

What these folks really need is a good paying job.  Obama and crew are making sure government dependency is on the rise by destroying free enterprise and giving people phones. Phones are nice.  Jobs are better.  All of us need help from time to time, and there are certainly some that need it on a regular and permanent basis. But to encourage it as a lifestyle…cradle to grave dependency is to destroy hope, not give it. Hope is defined as looking for a better future.  Cradle to grave government dependency is not hope.  That is despair.

We, as a nation, cannot afford to keep this up. As Margaret Thatcher said, sooner or later you run out of other people’s money. Meanwhile, maybe I should tell Verizon to cancel my plan.  Maybe I can qualify for an Obama Phone.