WHAT THEY’E FAILED TO MENTION IS THAT THE PHONE PROGRAM STARTED UNDER A REPUBLICAN, “RONALD REAGAN” NO LESS AND HAS CONTINUED THRU EACH SUCCEEDING PRESIDENCY BUT THEY STILL WANT TO BLAME OBAMA FOR EVERYTHING

Should Americans really be surprised? An Obama-era program to expand subsidies for prepaid cell phones and service for low-income recipients appears to be outrageously ridden with epidemic levels of fraud, waste and abuse. The $2.2 billion FCC-regulated Obamaphone program arranges payments to anyone applying for the service who says they qualify, courtesy of funds from normal, hard-working customers who pay their bills every month.

The federal program was audited by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which presented its shocking findings to Congress recently. So inept does the government appear to be at oversight for this program that even Democrats such as Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri have called for a closer look at it and/or a repeal.

Does any of this sound familiar?

In 2016, it was revealed that the IRS is having major problems with people filing false tax returns in other people’s names to get quick tax refunds, which they promptly spent on illicit goods and services. Reports of abuse of this system are so rife that apparently in some states, drug dealers gave up their more dangerous occupations to engage in this type of fraud because not only was it more lucrative than their previous methods of earning money, it was far safer for their well-being.

In 2016, the IRS admitted this scam cost the government some $21 billion just that year. While the agency has begun cracking down on this type of abuse, by no means has it eliminated it, and it’s likely the Obamaphone program is at the very earliest stages of simply recognizing the sheer scale of its problems.

One has to wonder who devises the enforcement for these types of programs and how it’s not realized how vulnerable they are to rampant abuse. When there are many books you can buy on Amazon telling you how to become a millionaire at the government’s expense, you know that our federal systems of handouts, subsidies and rebates — mostly based on liberal bleeding-heart wishful thinking — aren’t working. Find out all the dirt that’s still lingering from the government’s previous presidential administration.