James O’Keefe, the undercover video hero of the right, is at it again. Today he has released a new video showing people giving out “Obama” phones to people who say they will sell them for drugs and other items:
Undercover video shot in May by a conservative activist shows two corporate distributors of free cell phones handing out the mobile devices to people who have promised to sell them for drug money, to buy shoes and handbags, to pay off their bills, or just for extra spending cash.
The ‘Obama phone,’ which made its ignominious YouTube debut outside a Cleveland, Ohio presidential campaign event last September, is a project of the Federal Communications Commission’s ‘Lifeline’ program, which makes land line and mobile phones available to Americans who meet low-income requirements.
Did you catch that? These are “corporate” employees handing these phones out. So is O’Keefe calling for the government to expand and handle this program? That certainly has to be the case, since the bill that created these phones was so widely popular when it passed.
And let’s talk about that bill, and how the right will lie about anything. The entire “Obama” phone thing is a myth. Obama had nothing to do with the creation of this program and wasn’t even in politics when it passed.
The Lifeline program, which supplies low income people with phones, was originally signed into law in 1985, by the apparently ultra-liberal, socialistic Ronald Reagan. It was then expanded to include cellular phones by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Now the bill was signed by a Democrat, Bill Clinton, but it was sponsored in the Senate by a Republican, Larry Pressler of South Dakota. It passed the Senate by a 91-5 vote and the House by a 414-16 vote. So even if Clinton decided to veto it, it would have easily overcome that.
These phones didn’t magically appear on January 20th, 2009, when Barack Obama became President Obama. They have been around since the 90’s. I know people who even had them while Bush was President. Does that mean I’m blaming Bush? Not at all. It means I am stating a fact. But facts are the strongest of poison to Republicans. They have trouble manufacturing real issues with the President, so they make up issues, like this.
If you think about it, it really shows how our country has changed in the past 17 years. In 1996, our congress and President could come together and create a program to help out the less fortunate of our citizens. They didn’t just come together, they locked arms with a vast majority. Today all we can hear is the constant complaining of both sides and an inability to do anything for the people. That really is a sad state for our country.