TracFone is owned by one of President Obama’s biggest donors, and the company has just been awarded a contract for some new and improved Obama Phones. Oh wait, did I say improved? Oops, sorry. We’re supposed to think these new “smart phones” are going to teach people vital office skills to make them more employable. Unfortunately, they don’t do that. But they do help people make calls, play games and catch up with friends on social media on the taxpayers’ dime. All the while Obama’s buddy will be laughing all the way to the bank.
The program’s supporters tout it as a way for the unemployed to learn technical skills, to prepare resumes and to search for jobs, but one of the 14 pilot contracts that the FCC awarded went to Miami-based TracFone Wireless Inc.
TracFone CEO F.J. Pollak has been a frequent White House visitor and his wife Abigail has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for both Mr. Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns.
And although TracFone had originally lobbied for the program, critics say its contract would not provide recipients with skills-boosting computers and services, but would supply high-end Android phones, ready to play games and browse Facebook but doing little in the way of getting a job.
Other companies selected to provide Internet service noted that merely allowing viewers to use apps such as Twitter and run simple Google searches on a small phone screen didn’t meet the spirit of the program’s intent, which included goals of “increasing digital literacy and use of the Internet [to] help bridge the skills gap [and] reduce job search discouragement.”
“The small screen, keyboard and perhaps connectivity issues make it harder for smartphone-only users to engage as deeply with the Internet as home broadband users,” wrote John B. Horrigan of the Partnership for Connected Illinois, which will provide DSL hookups and computer hardware for the poor in that state. (Read More
Welcome to the Obama economy – when only the well connected get ahead.
Money-laundering is ok if Obama does it. Nothing to see here, folks. Move it along.
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In-depth cronyism, pay-to-play conflicts of interest, abuse, fraud, theft; worthy of impeachment again. How can the local government labor department or public library justify its existence now?
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This pisses me off no end!! We dumped our old phone in favor of a Tracfone. Instead of spending close to $500.00 per year, we now spend about a hundred dollars a year with tons of prepaid airtime. Let me make this very clear – our Tracfone is not a smart phone. It makes and receives calls. Period!
I hate our government!
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So every American who PAYS their cell phone bill forks over $30 a year to give 4 million free cell phones to unemployed welfare cheats, all through a Mexican company that is most likely is laundering billions in drug money into Obamee’s campaign coffers.
Obamee gets millions of votes and millions of bucks. The drug cartels that REALLY own TracFone get to launder billions in drug cash in every inner city in America and supply the dealers who sell their product with throwaway phones. Local Democrat thugs get paid to look the other way and call the program a vital national interest. And Shaniqua and her kids get to play Angry Birds all day instead of looking for work.
Why, the only person who loses in this deal is YOU, the law-abiding American taxpayer. So when are YOU going to do something about the Thug-In-Chief?
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Jeez – I just signed up for more Tracfone minutes yesterday, should have gotten an Obamaphone, damn!!
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My kids bought TracFones with their own money. They do chores to earn money for their minutes. But the government is putting them into debt to pay for phones for able bodied adults. It’s a mixed up crazy world we’re living in these days.
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