Author Topic: Dem Sen. McCaskill calls for criminal charges for 'Obamaphone' cheats  (Read 1735 times)

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Offline Olivia

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Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Monday called for criminal charges to be filed against people who defrauded a federal phone subsidy program.

McCaskill sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, urging the agency to refer examples of fraud in its Lifeline program to the Justice Department for prosecution.

"Knowingly providing false information to a government agency for profit must be investigated. If these companies are found in violation of federal law, I expect the DOJ will prosecute those responsible to the fullest extent of the law," she wrote.
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"The FCC's failures in oversight and enforcement are unacceptable and inexplicable," she wrote. "The FCC must drastically improve its oversight of the Lifeline program, or face the likelihood that lawmakers like myself, whom are deeply troubled with both the structure and activities of the Lifeline program will be able to garner adequate support to terminate it."
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Last year, the FCC toughened Lifeline's eligibility standards and created a database to track who is receiving service through the program.

Those reforms trimmed $200 million from the program last year and are on track to save $2 billion by the end of 2014, according to the FCC.

In a speech earlier this month, acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn said the idea of restricting Lifeline to landline phone service is "one of the most illogical things" she's heard since her appointment.

"Even suggesting this is taking a major step backwards and ignores the critical telecommunications of needy Americans and is out of step with the communications evolution," she said.
  (Bolding by me)

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/324063-democrat-calls-for-criminal-charges-for-obamaphone-cheats

So! FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn doesn't care if a large number of the cheats have two and three phones each, costing billions of dollars?   "We just can't take a step backwards and get out of step with communications evolution."  Sheesh!   **nononono*
« Last Edit: September 24, 2013, 12:35:24 pm by Olivia »
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Offline happyg

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Re: Dem Sen. McCaskill calls for criminal charges for 'Obamaphone' cheats
« Reply #1 on: September 24, 2013, 02:52:14 pm »
The government would have to arrest millions of people who cheated to get Obamaphones, some having as many as a dozen phones. It's who is giving out the phones that should be investigated, and those making money from them.  I think it is Verizon?

Oceander

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Re: Dem Sen. McCaskill calls for criminal charges for 'Obamaphone' cheats
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2013, 02:54:06 am »
That's just another one of the many intractable problems with government subsidies:  they create whole new opportunities for bad behaviour, which in turn results in the creation of ever more classes of criminal conduct.  Cut out the government subsidies and not only would you reduce the damaging distortions to the economy, you'd stop turning so many people into criminals.