Tag: Welfare

Surprise! The “Obamaphone” Program That Gives Phones To Poor People Is Rife With Corruption

An audit of the government’s Obamaphone program, which gives cell phones to poor people, that was requested by Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri has turned up over $9 billion stashed in private bank accounts as well as over a third of enrollees who should not have qualified for the program.

Known officially as the Lifeline Program, the phone giveaway was a symbol of government waste in the Obama years, but a new report from the Government Accountability Office confirms those fears.

A complete lack of oversight is causing this program to fail the American taxpayer everything that could go wrong is going wrong, McCaskill said. Were currently letting phone companies cash a government check every month with little more than the honor system to hold them accountable, and that simply cant continue.”

McCaskill is on the Senates chief oversight committee and a former state auditor.

More on the audit’s findings from Fox News:

The GAO report found that about 10.6 million people have an Obamaphone, but 36 percent of them may not qualify, according to the Washington Times. The audit also concluded that more than 5,500 people were found to be enrolled for two phones, while the program was paying for about 6,400 phones for persons the government has listed as dead, the paper reported.

We remember a day at the Brooklyn Public Library when we watched a guy sitting on his laptop and checking one of his two smartphones identify the other smartphone to his friend as his “Obamaphone,” telling the second guy he has to make calls from it now and then to confirm he’s using it.

So…yeah, thanks, Obama!