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back to article FCC hosts Reagan-off as it enters 21st century

FCC commissioners embarked on a Reagan-quoting political bake-off today as the regulator sought to expand its discount telephone service for flat-broke families. A proposal to extend a $9.25-a-month telephone service called Lifeline to include broadband internet access is now out for public comment. The Lifeline service is …

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  1. Mark 85
    Devil

    Republicans against it?

    Ok.. it costs us taxpayers more. But the telcos/broadband companies get more money and profit and thus, more lobbyists in Washington. What be wrong with that?

    Even the NSA should be for it as there'll be more possible terrorist and child molesters on line for them to monitor. Which means they can increase their budget and power.

    5 2 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Republicans against it?

      Let's see, "costs more," meaning pay up sucker. Then the telcos get richer, and the NSA (currently Obama's creature) gets to spy on us more.

      So basically, screw the peepul, and instead pay off the big donors and the cheap votes.

      Yeah, I'd say this has Democrat written all over it.

      3 3 Reply
    2. veti Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Republicans against it?

      "What would be wrong with that" would be that the businesses concerned don't give enough money to the Republicans, in preference to the Democrats.

      See, telecom utilities know which side their bread is buttered, and do the sensible thing, splashing money at both sides indiscriminately. But the internet sector has the bad taste to favour non-Republicans.

      1 1 Reply
    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Republicans against it?

      so this means that the people benefitting from this aren't GOP aligned donors but ones known to give lots to the DNC. Perhaps the program means giving control of this broadband for the "poor" to certain Silicon Valley partisans who're known for extravagant wealth and little concern for individual privacy?

      0 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Childcatcher

    Forgotten...

    ... is that Ronald Reagan was a popular President of the Screen Actors Guild. zHe totally got the whole working poor thing. While SAG really isn't blue coller, he knew the crews situation as well. So it shouldn't have been a surprise that he got a lot of blue collar votes.

    As a radical frothing (power-conflict) libertarian, I should be opposed to this subsidy but I've been watching this space and it really is needed. Library computers, in central and southern California, just doesn't cut. Too few computers split between job seekers, applications for benefits, and of course the children. Especially after the Great Recession.

    3 0 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't stop now!

    If free phones and freebie broadband are what the poor really need, and need so bad that the feds raid the taxpayer pocket to get, then how can we justify NOT paying for a whole lot of life's other necessities, like food, rent, etc.

    Oh, wait. They're already having all that stuff paid for by the rest of us, that "food stamps" and "housing assistance" stuff.

    So I guess this broadband thing is one of the few remaining items where the "poor" still have to shift for themselves. If only we weren't so stingy, they could already be enjoying a blissful, job-free existence. Well, except for having to buy recreational substances, but I understand there's a new Democrat proposal to provide for that too...

    3 10 Reply
    1. RNixon
      Reply Icon

      Re: Don't stop now!

      Pay attention.

      They cannot get free phones AND free broadband.

      They can get a free phone OR free broadband.

      The Lifeline program currently allows people on the program to choose from a landline OR a cell phone. The expansion means they will choose from a landline OR a cell phone OR internet access.

      Is letting broke-ass people decide which form of communication their subsidy goes toward really that terrible?

      (It's not even much of a subsidy. $9.95/month. Which, if telcos are willing to provide service for that, tells you something about how much they're overcharging everyone *else*.)

      1 1 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Don't stop now!

        show me a single government subsidy program that has NOT expanded it's "coverage" in the last two decades, and then you'll be on to something. What is on paper today is NOT what will be on paper next election cycle.

        Remember this is all Federal, and State programs can add to this-and in some places already do.

        In the past, huge politically problematic giveaways were passed thru "loan" language-telling people and opponents that recipients were receiving "loans" they'd be required to pay back. California's General Assistance (GA) is one recent one

        Less than a decade later, the program was changed to "grant" and all those who had not paid back a dime were rewarded with free cash.

        the programs were supposed to be for about a year and offer a few hundred a month. But some individuals had over 20K in "loans" somehow-and got it all "forgiven".

        0 1 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Corrupt politicians...

    ...are in bed with the corrupt cable/telcos and consumers pay for it all. What a great system. /sarcasm

    0 0 Reply
  5. James 100

    "if telcos are willing to provide service for that, tells you something about how much they're overcharging everyone *else*."

    Not really - from the article: "citizens pay the discount rate, and Uncle Sam makes up the difference on a normal full-price plan with the telco". So the telco still gets paid as normal, it's just the taxpayer left out of pocket.

    You'd think a very cheap basic mobile plan wouldn't cost much more than that anyway - for a while, I was paying £7/month for a SIM-only account in the UK, with three hours of calls, a lot of texts and a few hundred Mb of data, which would surely be plenty for a "lifeline" service without needing any subsidy.

    1 0 Reply
  6. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    So in 2008

    there wasn't any traction, if that's the word, for the phrase "Bush telegraph"?

    0 0 Reply

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