OT: Why we need to raise taxes...

[Vader]

Here's how your tax dollars are working:

FREE cell phones!

http://www.ehow.com/how_5352363_benefit ... ogram.html

[kempo]

Vader do you have something against helping drug dealers?

[Slinky]

Yep, yep. Every time I see that commercial on TV for 250 minutes a month free ..... I see red and tend to froth at the mouth! My tax dollars buying someone, anyone, cell phone minutes each month just torques my jaws no end.

[ems]

Thanks so much for posting that link. I'm sure it will help lots of folks who otherwise couldn't afford it, especially with emergency type calls.

[Alshain]

It's not really as simple as all that. Communication is a necessity, you can't walk into a place an hand in a resume anymore. Hell, even the interview process is done over the phone these days. This isn't half as bad as the govt paying for digital to analog TV converters, and really for emergency/weather reasons that was necessary too. This isn't a lot, the cell providers give steep discounts to this program so the cost of 250 minute/mo is a couple dollars per phone. And these aren't iPhones, their Go Phones/TrackPhones... i.e. piece of crap phones that can't do much more than calling that probably only cost $2. It's just enough to help people in rough situations do their job hunting and such... or to provide disability with way to call for emergency help. They could have given land line service, but they probably realized this was cheaper.

[kempo]

You take this program and everyone elses program and put them all together and you have this: http://www.usdebtclock.org/#

[Vader]

Yep, yep. Every time I see that commercial on TV for 250 minutes a month free ..... I see red and tend to froth at the mouth! My tax dollars buying someone, anyone, cell phone minutes each month just torques my jaws no end.

Ya know Slinky, I know what it's like to be poor, because I used to be poor.
I'm all for helping out those who are genuinely in need,(and I do help with whatever I can to charitable organizations) and being a somewhat young "senior" myself, that also means seniors who have a hard time taking care of themselves in their later years.

I think we have NEVER done enough for our military veterans!

But this just tickles me for the amount of abuse that will most likely occur with these cell phones. What next? free internet service? Don't forget free iPads, Lifetime membership to Netflix? Surely we can give away free Starbucks coffee to anyone with a voucher? Flat screen TV's to watch free HBO?

[Vader]

Vader do you have something against helping drug dealers?

ROFL!

[Slinky]

Hey, Vader. I've been there myself. Divorced mom of 3, one handicapped, no meat in our meals for months on end, water shut off, electricity shut off, clearing $42 a week and paying $20 of that for a baby sitter, no child support from the ex .... we survived. And did it w/only ONE voucher for 50 gal of fuel oil from our government in three years. We qualified for surplus food - IF I would take a full day off from work to go get it. Yeah, sure, like I'd keep my job very long at that rate!!! It never occurred to me to go on welfare despite I'd have drawn $180 a month plus medical and dental. Not as long as I had some kind of job! And eventually I worked my way thru one job to another until I got my job w/the USPOD (USPS now).

I so agree w/you about caring for our military veterans!!!! Our heroes .... until the first budget cut. Then its armor and weapons over soldiers and veterans.

Alshain, I have one of those bottom of the barrel cell phones. Its all I need. Its a pre-paid, I don't even use all my pre-paid minutes. But I have it when and if I need it. And I pay for it myself, the government doesn't pay for it for me. And don't even talk to me about those digital to analog TV converters forcing us to go to basic satellite because we got decent reception on only one of the three local channels.

Grrrr, you guys have me on a tear now!!! I'm gonna quit before I start frothing at the mouth!

[moresleep]

Free cell phones to a few deadbeats is nothing. Free six-figure salaries, pensions and lifetime healthcare benefit to "public servants" (i.e., government employees who think they are "public masters"), at all levels of federal, state and local government, is where the real tax money goes. Blaming the federal government isn't enough, either. You want to save real tax dollars? Get your town to declare bankruptcy, so that vested city hall, police and firefighter pension benefits can be brought back down to earth.

[Tip10]

Get your town to declare bankruptcy,

Cannot be done -- there simply is no provision in the bankruptcy laws for government entities.
It does not apply. Many states are effectively bankrupt but cannot be declared so, nor can they garner any of the protections provided for under the law.