It just never seems to end, does it? And few in DC seem to care one way or the other.

"Government programs to offer cell service at free or reduced cost are ripe for fraud. Claire McCaskill, a U.S. senator who represents Ferguson and the rest of Missouri, has termed the Lifeline Program as "one of the most fraud-infested programs ever conceived in the federal government."

And that's the reaction of a Democrat to a program that provides what critics are calling "Obamaphones."

Who pays for Lifeline? You do. Companies that participate in the program get $9.25 per month per subscriber (an amount that swells to $34.25 on tribal lands). The money comes from a fee assessed to paying customers.

Obamaphone critics sometimes paint this as a welfare program. If true, it's a corporate welfare program. From 2009 to 2013, $7.7 billion was collected from phone subscribers and doled out to the corporations that provide free phones and discounted telephone service. In 2012 alone, $2.1 billion was transferred from subscribers to providers.

The program's participation and cost literally exploded when it morphed from a landline-only affair to include cellphones. Matthew Sabas of Economics21, recently noted just a few examples of fraud uncovered in the program. He terms Lifeline as a corporate welfare fund "masquerading an as aid program for the poor."

Cellphone providers benefit by signing up the most participants. "There is no incentive," Sabas says, "to transition a Lifeline recipient off of the program, and companies are making welfare more enticing by continuously improving phone plans."...

The largest Obamaphone vendor is TracFone Wireless, which in 2012 claimed $459 million in Lifeline money, Sabas said. Last year it was fined $4.5 million -- 1 percent of its intake -- for signing up ineligible customers. A Wall Street Journal investigation found that 41 percent of Lifeline subscribers served by the five largest providers couldn't prove their eligibility.

Sabas correctly notes that Lifeline has grown into "a billion-dollar fiasco." To keep the gravy rolling on the train, the industry is spending millions on lobbying.

Throughout this editorial we've used the term "Obamaphones." That was done for a reason. Compared to nationalized health care, Lifeline is a relatively cheap and simple program. That it's become so mired in fraud and class-envy politics gives us a glimpse of what's to come when Obamacare is fully realized."

http://www.gopusa.com/freshink/2014/10/2...t/?subscriber=1

Interesting thought. Akin to the thought about someone working hard to commit a crime, when had they put all that effort, talent and thought into doing the right thing they would have been ahead.