President Obama has nothing to do with “Obama phones” — it’s a program that not only started before Obama came into office but is not federally funded — but don’t tell WorldNetDaily’s Cheryl Chumley that. She writes in an April 1 article:
The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to expand its long-running telephone subsidy program, dubbed the Obamaphone, to include Internet access for lower-income earners.
[…]
The vote was along party lines, with the majority in the Democratic camp.The new program basically allows those who receive these federal entitlements the option to use their $9.25 per month Lifeline phone subsidy for stand-alone broadband service.
But who dubnbed the program the “Obamaphone”? People like Chumley, right-wingers who were eager to smear the president with giving handouts to poor people even though, again, the program predates Obama.
And to drive the fallacious point home, the headline on Chumley’s article reads; Obamaphone? Try ObamaInternet: Feds expand subsidy.”
At no point does Chumley explain that the program does not use federal tax money but is instead funded through a fee on phone service.
It’s not until the final paragraph of her araticle that Chumley gets around to admitting the truth, that Obama had nothing to do with the program — then blames Obama for the program’s “financial irresponsibility”:
The Lifeline subsidy was actually started before Obama’s presidency, as a means of ensuring low-income Americans had access to emergency response services in a timely manner. But it’s expanded greatly under this current White House, and critics have charged that financial irresponsibility has plagued the program for years.
Actually, the “expansion” Chumley talks about — permitting the Lifeline program, previously limited to landline phones, to be used on cell phones — occurred in 2005. The Obama administration did nothing to “greatly expand” the program; that happened when cell phone providers started aggressively signing up customers without demanding proof of eligibility, exploiting a loophole in the program. The Lifeline program now has instituted some reforms and is cracking down on providers who abuse the program.
But, hey, it’s easier to perpetuate a right-wing myth than to tell the truth at WND.