{"id":24511,"date":"2017-07-06T14:53:42","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T18:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=24511"},"modified":"2017-07-06T14:53:42","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T18:53:42","slug":"remember-those-obamaphones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=24511","title":{"rendered":"Remember those Obamaphones?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good day all. Do you recall one of Obama\u2019s bigger boondoggles, the so called \u201cObamaphones?\u201d These were free cellphones with service plans given to welfare recipients. While these people were screaming Free Phones!\u201d we all know who was actually paying for them.<\/p>\n

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Now, a new report has been released on this program and to the surprise of no one, was loaded with fraud. Here are the details from the Washington Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The controversial \u201cObamaphone\u201d program, which pays for cellphones for the poor, is rife with fraud, according to a new government report released Thursday that found more than a third of enrollees may not even be qualified. <\/b>Known officially as the Lifeline Program, the phone giveaway became a symbol of government waste in the previous administration. Now a new report from the Government Accountability Office<\/a> bears out those concerns. <\/b> <\/b><\/p>\n

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The report, requested by Sen. Claire McCaskill, Missouri Democrat, also says the program has stashed some $9 billion in assets in private bank accounts rather than with the federal treasury, further increasing risks and depriving taxpayers of the full benefit of that money. <\/b><\/p>\n

Translation: These morons got caught, and we want our money back. Oh, the treasury? The taxpayers? Screw them! This is My money and I will decide how to spend it!<\/p>\n

\u201cA complete lack of oversight is causing this program to fail the American taxpayer \u2014 everything that could go wrong is going wrong,\u201d said Mrs. McCaskill, ranking Democrat on the Senate\u2019s chief oversight committee and who is a former state auditor in Missouri.<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re 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\u2019t continue,\u201d she said. <\/b><\/p>\n

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Now this program does predate Der Fubar\u2019s maladministration, but he is the one who started handing out taxpayer\u2019s money to the deadbeat brigades by the truckload.<\/p>\n

Some 10.6 million people have an Obamaphone, but 36 percent of them may not qualify, investigators said after sampling the population and finding a huge chunk of people couldn\u2019t prove they were eligible. <\/b><\/p>\n

Probably because they weren\u2019t. As for the mobile service companies? Yeah, they weren\u2019t to eager to check on the eligibility. Why? Would you want to shut down a near guaranteed revenue stream?<\/p>\n

Investigators also submitted fraudulent applications to see what would happen, and 12 of the 19 phone carriers they applied to approved a phone. <\/b><\/p>\n

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Thursday\u2019s report is just the latest warning from the GAO<\/a>, which is the government\u2019s chief watchdog. Previous reports had warned the Obama administration the program was susceptible to double-dipping, and that the FCC didn\u2019t even have a good yardstick to measure whether the program was meeting its goals.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the response from King Putt\u2019s court of jesters? It was about what you would expect from that den of thieves and miscreants.<\/p>\n