WTF!?!?! Up to 35% of Americans Qualify for a Free Obama Phone???

OK, so there is a program that telephone and cellular phone subscribers pay for that gives away cellular phones to the poor and dare I say 'near-poor'. The money comes from Universal Service Fund fees that are tacked onto most phone bills. The Universal Service Fund is:

The Universal Service Fund (USF) was created by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1997 to meet Congressional universal service goals as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The 1996 Act states that all providers of telecommunications services should contribute to federal universal service in some equitable and nondiscriminatory manner; there should be specific, predictable, and sufficient Federal and State mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service; all schools, classrooms, health care providers, and libraries should, generally, have access to advanced telecommunications services; and finally, that the Federal-State Joint Board and the FCC should determine those other principles that, consistent with the 1996 Act, are necessary to protect the public interest. As of the third quarter of 2012, the USF fee, which changes quarterly, equals 15.7 percent of a telecom company's interstate and end-user revenues - Wiki

One of the approved uses of this money is to give free cellular phones, and cellular phone service to people who qualify. Who qualifies? Well, according to the Obama Phone website up to 35% of all Americans

If you, or members in your household are, receiving the following benefits you automatically qualify for the Lifeline program. Those interested in the program must have an income of less than 135% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. (For example in the 48 Contiguous States and D.C the income level is $22,350 per year for a family of four.)

• Food Stamps or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
• Medicaid
• Supplemental Security Income – commonly known as SSI
• Health Benefit Coverage under Child Health Insurance Plan (CHIP)
• The National School Lunch Program’s Free Lunch Program.
• Low-Income Energy Assistance Program – LIHEAP
• Federal Public Housing Assistance ( Section 8 )
• If you are a low-income Eligible Resident of Tribal Lands
• Temporary Assistance to Needy Families – TANF

Qualifications can vary by state. - The Obama Phone

You have got to be kidding me. That is a huge number of people. And in certain areas of the country, I guess people could claim that everyone has an Obama Phone like was done in the video from Cleveland, Ohio earlier this week...

So where do I sign up for free alcohol? But seriously, I do not have a land line phone. The cable company is more than willing to give me one for free, but I gave that phone up years ago because the 'Free' phone cost me about $10 a month in taxes. Part of those taxes was to fund this program which is probably being abused all to hell. What's next? Free internet? Apparently this is the direction that we are headed. 

Keep this in mind the next time you look at your phone bill. What other programs are you paying for through fees in your phone bill.You might find some surprising things. Take the NY City area. Their phone bills also include a surtax for the Metropolitan Transit Authority. All of this you pay for to subsidize other people.

Yes, some people should get help. But I bet that people will be surprised at just how much help poor people already get as they cry to politicians to put their hands into your pockets yet again... Don't wait for any accountability anytime soon. They only want to audit the rich. There is no interest in auditing what happens to the money when it it given to the poor (in exchange for votes).

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US Spending Problem Explained

I was forwarded this and enjoyed it enough to share. If only President Obama and his follow Democrats could understand and confront this problem. I am not saying that the Republicans are blameless here. However, they are the only ones that both sides will hold to account regarding future spending....

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This rather brilliantly cuts thru all the political doublespeak we get.
It puts it into a much better perspective.

US Tax revenue:  $2,170,000,000,000
Fed budget:         $3,820,000,000,000
New debt:             $1,650,000,000,000
National debt:   $16,000,000,000,000
Recent budget cut:   $38,500,000,000

Now let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget

Annual family income:                             $21,700
Money the family spent:                           $38,200
New debt on the credit card:                    $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $160,000
Total budget cuts:                                          $385


OK, now Lesson # 2:

Here's another way to look at the Debt Ceiling:

Let's say … you come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood and your home has sewage all the way up to the ceilings.

What do you think you should do ......

Raise the ceilings, or pump out the crap?
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Obama and Democrats Hate Your Job - Coal Edition

When the Democrats talk about creating jobs, they only talk about jobs in sectors that traditionally support Democrats. It is really a kind of self-supporting loop. 

These jobs:

• Firefighters 
• Policemen (Sometimes)
• Teachers 
• More Government workers 

 These jobs all sound good, but employing ever more of them requires more tax revenue. That is because all of these workers are supported by taxes. Now President Obama and the Democrats would like you to believe that these jobs are supported by Federal Taxes. However, outside of Federal Government workers, this is a huge lie. Most firefighters, policemen and teachers are supported by State and local taxes. So when President Obama hits Romney in an ad for wanting to drastically slash funding for public schools 20 percent, it is a deceptive claim given that 90% of school funding comes from local sources, such as property taxes. In reality slashing the Government portion by 20% only reduces the overall amount 2 percent. But if the Democrats told you this, most every reasonable person would say that a 2% overall cut is not bad. Anyway, this is one reason that teachers and firefighters get laid off. The Government gives stimulus money to hire extra workers. The stimulus money runs out. These extra workers are laid off. Obama and the Democrats howl about these laid off workers without noting that they were ever needed to begin with.

Now take the other jobs. Those that pay taxes to support the jobs above. Take coal jobs. The coal mining industry is being killed under this Administration. And they are nowhere near done. We have had people knocking on our door multiple times in the last couple of months asking us to sign petitions to encourage the President, Congress, the EPA, etc.. to push to get rid of dirty coal, with the excuse that they are pushing to get this done for the children. Even my children.

Now, we really do have a good and relatively clean country. The air and water are better than ever before. Remember acid rain? How about leaded gasoline and lead paint. I do. Surely there are pollutants associated with coal fired power plants, but now we have gotten to the point apparently that the remaining issues are either relatively trivial or rare that they don't even have a name to scare people with and certainly nothing to point at. So instead we just have to be confronted with the idea that coal is bad because this is something we can all believe. Remember that acid rain.... Well, there are are huge consequences for continuing a 'War on Coal' and coal mining jobs:

President Obama’s war on coal is real. Don’t believe us? Come to Brilliant, Ohio or Clay, West Virginia and we’ll show you coal mines that were closed as a result of President Obama’s assault on hardworking Americans who work in the coal industry. Coal is a cheap, abundant, and reliable source of power. Almost 90% of Ohio’s power comes from coal and just across the Ohio River in West Virginia, over 95% of its power comes from coal. Needless to say, coal plays a vital role in not only powering the Buckeye and Mountain states, but coal generates nearly half of America’s electricity. So why would President Obama want to destroy such a vital part of America’s economy?

President Obama’s war on coal is nothing new. Even before President Obama took the oath of office, he was pretty clear with his plans for America’s coal industry. In 2008, then-candidate Obama said to the San Francisco Chronicle, “So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them.” If there’s one thing we can say about the Obama Administration, when it comes to assaulting the coal industry, its actions match its words. - By Reps. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), The Hill

It is senseless to drive what was a productive industry out of business. Worse, it is reckless to destroy energy production not only for households but also for businesses. Some industries, like steal production rely on cheap electricity. Pushing those businesses out of the US will just result in much dirtier production in China not to mention much higher electric bills in the US. Want to pay more for electricity? How do you like the light of those CFL bulbs? Me, I like lighting up my world.

Lighting up the night was a huge innovation. It is somewhat sad that many people are now so concerned about their high electric bills that they no longer keep on a front light. Kind of a shame really and we only have the Government and Global warming fanatics to blame. We can hopefully put a stop to this with a change of occupants in the White House. 

This President wants to talk about outsourcing to China. He accuses Mitt Romney of outsourcing jobs to China. Well Obama and the Democrats are outsourcing our pollution to China. That is the worse crime. Their actions are literally killing people over there. Not only that, by making electricity more expensive over here, along with everything else, it is just one more reason we are losing jobs in America.

Don't kid yourself. This is by Democrat design. They actually think they are doing you and your family a favor by killing off coal jobs and other jobs like steel production. Lets face it, they are hard nasty jobs. They would never do these jobs. So, you're welcome...

You're Not Going to Get Job Stimulus From Democrats - They Hate Your Job
 
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'The Hope and the Change' - Movie Trailer for Dissillusioned 2008 Obama Voters

'The Hope and the Change' is a documentary profiling a number of independants and Democrats who voted for President Obama in 2008 and are disillusioned over his Presidency, what he promised and what was actually delivered. 

It looks like a powerful movie. Interestingly enough, it will be shown on TV during the next couple of weeks.

Keep in mind, this is a President, along with his fellow Democrats, who Hate Your Job, who could have created 9,000 millionaires with the stimulus money, who very well might have gotten Osama despite his team working against him and whose Obamacare legislation did nothing to improve healthcare in America and in the process used such accounting trickery to make the numbers 'work' that if it was done in a publicly traded company probably would have landed people in jail.

I do not think the documentary has anything to do with the issues I pointed out above. It appears to deal on a more basic level, where the President made some simple promises and failed to keep even them.

And while we are at it, don't forget the 'Fast and Furious' gun running to criminals fiasco. I stand by my prediction that people are going to jail for this. However it will probably require a change in leadership for any read investigation to determine who will have to pay for the dead people this program left in its wake.

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Virginia’s 11th Congressional District Democrat Congressman Gerry Connolly Refuses to Debate Challengers

I have been paying so much attention to the race for President that I really had no clue who was running against my Congressman. So I did a quick search and found his Republican challenger:

Colonel Chris Perkins is a retired United States Army officer, former Special Forces (Green Beret), small business owner, and family man who has lived in Northern Virginia since 1991 when not deployed overseas. Concerned about America's deteriorating fiscal situation, and severely disappointed with the lack of leadership in Washington and the poor performance of careerist politicians such as Congressman Gerry Connolly, Chris has once again dedicated himself to honorable public service. - (Read More) www.perkins2012.com

It all sounds good and he sounds like a nice step up from my present Congressman Gerry Connolly. And it seems that Congressman Connolly thinks so to, given that he refuses to debate his challengers (There is also an Independent running).

FAIRFAX, Va. – Mark Gibson, independent candidate for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, says he’s eager to engage the other candidates and media in a forum on Wednesday, September 12 at 8 p.m. televised by Reston Community Television, RCTV28 on Comcast. But, Gibson said, “I’m disappointed that the incumbent has declined.” Gibson will appear along with Republican candidate Chris Perkins and Green Party candidate Joe Galdo. Moderated by Colin Mills, President of the Reston Citizens Association, and John Lovaas, host of RCTV28’s Reston Impact, journalists from three media outlets serving Reston – The Connection, Fairfax Times, and Patch.com – will pose questions to the candidates. Notably absent is the incumbent, Gerry Connolly. The two-term Democrat declined participation, though he benefited from inclusion of Democrat-dominated Reston in Congressional redistricting following the 2010 Census. - potomaclocal.com

The Congressman is certainly not required to debate. However, his failure to do so does lend credence to complaints that he is a career hack politician. It is that type of politician that we don't need in Congress. Here is a summary from the Washington Examiner from two years ago:

Incumbent Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly exemplifies the fading political fortunes of the freshman tax-and-spenders who rode President Obama’s coattails into Congress two years ago. The former chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and president of the 2008 congressional class, Connolly loyally cast votes for the president’s $814 billion stimulus bill, bank bailouts, cap and trade and Obamacare. - Link

Chris Perkins for Congress!
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