Known officially as the Lifeline Program, the controversial Obamaphone program turns out to be riddled with fraud.
(As if many of us ever thought anything that was titled ‘Obama-anything’ wouldn’t be found out to have fraud and wasted government resources?)
A new report by the Government Accountability Office found that more than a third of enrollees may not even be qualified to receive the perks of the Obamaphone.
Senator Clair McCaskill of Missouri, ranking Democrat on the Senate’s chief oversight committee said:
“A complete lack of oversight is causing this program to fail the American taxpayer — everything that could go wrong is going wrong.
“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.”
(Funny to hear a Democrat say something like this until you realize they’re up for re-election!)
The GAO report found:
- 10.6 million people have an Obamaphone
- 36% of them may not qualify
- more than 5,500 people were found to be enrolled for two phones
- nearly 6,400 phones for persons the government has listed as having died are being paid for by the program
I know what you’re thinking: “How is this paid for exactly?”
While the Obamaphone program is being administered by the federal government, funding comes from cellphone carriers, passed on to you through that little universal service fee on your monthly statement.
Title has been updated.