Living Free in America

While it is becoming less possible almost every day to exercise our freedoms in America, that is not the topic of this article. No, this article is about a totally different kind of free, a freedom that drives those of us who struggle to make a decent living every day and have some good things in our lives absolutely insane!

If you are like most Americans, you probably have a cell phone. In fact, for many of us, including this author, the cell phone has become our only phone. Cell phone usage has become such an integral part of our lives that many of us feel incomplete without it. Try this: go to any public place, take a break from your phone and look around. You’ll see that virtually everyone is staring at the little screen and working away at games, texting, surfing the Internet, etc. We ignore people around us and commit our complete attention to these little remarkable devices.

As a cell phone user, you know that cell and smartphones can be quite expensive. So, the next time you get your cell phone bill, take a look closer look at it. Check to see if you can find the Universal Service Fee. You probably don’t ever think much about these fees and just accept them as taxes. Most people probably never even look at the fees and just accept them as the cost of doing things, but Universal Service Fee is a very important item. This fee is derived from the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which requires telecommunications companies to pay into a fund that pays for free cell phones for the underprivileged. Since communication companies are not going to bear the expense of a government-required program (and ask yourself, ‘where does the government get the authority to require such an action from a private corporation?’), they pass the expense to their customers disguised in a very nondescript fee. So, when you are buying and using a cell phone or a home phone, you know that you are going to pay for the poor to have the same service at no cost.

Americans who receive food stamps, Medicaid, or other federal aid, or who earn up to 135% of the federal poverty guidelines, qualify for the program.

Now, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports, we have a pretty good idea of how much the program pays out -- and how quickly it's growing as more and more people find out about it. In 2011, Lifeline paid out $1.6 billion, more than double the amount paid in 2008 ($772 million). (Source: http://news.yahoo.com/washington-footing-cell-phone-bill-millions-low-income-202500656.html)

Isn’t it enough that we are paying for the cell phone (not a smart phone – just a standard “go phone” type cell), but also the service which includes 250 minutes per month? One of the real concerns regarding this program falls in the area of how the funds are administered. Basically, it is not administered very well. Apparently, there are many who do not really qualify for the service, but receive it anyway and the real clincher is that many of these people have multiple free cell phones and service.

This abuse of federal power is just a drop in the bucket of ‘free services and products provided by our federal government.’ One need only search online for “free stuff from the government” to find almost 20 million sites offering to help you find a myriad of freebies, courtesy of the government (really, from your tax dollars) for a startling numbers of things (even postage stamps, among many other surprising items).

If anyone can find a site that will provide free or subsidized gas, please post that site, as I can think of no service that I need more.

Naturally, at a time when we face such a surging cost of living, low wages, loss of jobs, loss of homes, loss of American industry and almost insurmountable national debt, there is good reason to ask why the government continues to waste huge amounts of money for programs like the free cell phones, not to mention numerous other programs of which most Americans are unaware, even though they pay for them with each paycheck.

There can be no better example of Socialism than the various programs that we continue to add and fund each day. No matter how well intentioned, the simple fact is that when everyone who works pays for those who do not work to have the same products and services, this is an unfair redistribution of wealth – and that, my friends, is Socialism.

John Wayne Tucker

http://johnwaynetucker.com/congress

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