I have zero problems with using taxpayer money (ie: my money) to provide help to those people who, through bad luck (in the Robert A. Heinlein sense), are unable to take care of their own needs. Unfortunately, when a such a program is offered to the general public, there are always people who will take advantage of it and try to get their own "free stuff" - case in point - Obamaphones. From Fortune Magazine:
The Federal Government’s Phone Subsidy Program Is Apparently Rife With Fraud
One of the federal government's low income phone subsidy programs is bedeviled by fraud, a watchdog agency investigation concluded.
The Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program paid at least $1.2 million to duplicate or deceased recipients and more than one-third of participants out of 3.5 million reviewed appeared not to be eligible, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released on Thursday.
The agency also uncovered problems with the way phone companies were charging their customers fees to cover the cost of the program. The non-profit group that oversees the program, called the Universal Service Administrative Company or USAC, audited only 74 carriers over the past six years out of more than 6,000 that collect fees, the GAO noted. Reviewing the audits, GAO said only 10 carriers reported their revenue correctly while 48 underreported revenue and 16 over reported revenue.
"A complete lack of oversight is causing this program to fail the American taxpayer—everything that could go wrong is going wrong," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), one of the lawmakers who requested the study, said in a statement. "We’re 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’t continue."
Knock me over with a feather - corruption in a government program? Added bonus - a Google search for government free stuff turns up 17,700,000 results. Just sayin'
Tip of the hat to a local friend and ham radio person for the link.
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