Welfare Fraud, Waste, & Abuse - Free Cell Phones, a neverending entitlement

[WhiskeyGirl]

"The reality is this is just frosting on an enormous cake," says Robert Rector, an analyst with the Heritage Foundation. "We spend over $800 billion a year providing various types of assistance to the poor. That's one dollar in every 20 in this economy. It's huge and we really can't afford it."

"But from a public safety perspective, what happens when the mobile phone leaves the house? When there is an emergency? What happens when the power goes out? Those are concerns."

What concerns critics most is fraud. The program is supposed to be "self-verifying" -- that is, as long as a person claims they qualify for the subsidy, no government agency is auditing or enforcing the subscriber rolls.

"We are focused on the carrier and making sure the carriers are submitting the proper information to us," says Laura Bettencourt, an administrator of the Universal Service Fund. "We are not focused on the subscriber."

Rector says no one is guarding the hen house. So if an individual signs up for the program while on food stamps, then gets a job, no regulatory process exists to assure the subsidy ends.

"It certainly is a recipe for fraud, and one major problem with this type of program is that it doesn’t create any incentive for additional work or for moving toward self sufficiency," said Rector.

more here - http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/07/tracking-taxes-cell-phones-new-wireless-welfare/?test=latestnews