Since last summer, it has become very clear that while the Republican Party is willing to add trillions of dollars to our national deficit in order to pay off the rich, they will pretend to be “fiscally responsible” when it comes to slashing the meager budgets of our social safety nets. Specifically, the Republican-led FCC, in tandem with Republican congressional lackeys, plans to slash funding to the Lifeline program. The program, begun under Ronald Reagan’s administration, was set up as a way to help subsidize access to telecommunications for people with low incomes. As telecommunications have evolved, so has the program, offering financial assistance to those who qualify, in addition to access to internet and mobile phones. In the modern world, cell phone and internet access are essential to getting work, keeping work, and even ensuring medical safety.
The “overhaul” of the Lifeline program by FCC chair Ajit Pai is a classic Republican attack on low-income Americans. Under the guise of doing away with “waste” and “fraud,” upwards of 70 percent of the 10.7 million Americans who receive help with their data programs will now need to find a new service provider. Chairman Pai’s proposal would eliminate resellers in the Lifeline program—companies that profit by leasing the monopoly infrastructures of big telecoms (like Pai’s seemingly current former employer Verizon) and then providing cheaper wireless to those who qualify.
As David Dorwart, the chairman of the National Lifeline Association (NaLA), told Ars Technica, those millions of Americans need that access for more than just talking to family and friends:
"They get their doctor calls, and they reach out to schools, and that won't be available to them at the cost it is today," said Dorwart of Lifeline users. "It's not only an accessibility issue, it's an affordability issue."
Though he’s long been against the Lifeline program, Pai’s attack on resellers is something new.
Pai, appointed as chairman of the FCC in early 2017, has long been critical of the Lifeline program. Appointed by President Barack Obama to join the commission under former Chairman Tom Wheeler, Pai voted against the program's modernization in 2016. He did not mention a desire to eliminate resellers in his dissent.
He didn’t “mention a desire to eliminate resellers” back then because he hadn’t been given that scam formulation by whoever pulls his strings. Offering up a working “alternative” at the time was pointless, as his vote was in the minority. Pai’s job in 2016 was to send up flags to Republicans (and their handlers) that he was a good little doggy for telecoms. All he needed to do was bark in the broadest terms possible—say he was against low income people, say he was against net neutrality protections—and then sit wagging his tail and hope he would get the promotion to sit under a bigger table eating scraps.
When Pai was announced as the new FCC chairman, he quickly stopped the expansion of the Lifeline program—reversing a course that would have potentially helped millions of families. He has subsequently shown how good a dog he is by doing everything his masters ask while shamelessly lying to the American people. Pai’s FCC is also attacking broadband subsidies for American Indians. The point isn’t to save money; it’s to give the appearance that they are saving money, and, more importantly, show that they are only going to offer “welfare” to rich (mostly) white people. Sadly, so many of those poor white people that voted for these crooks believe they will be remembered when the right time comes. They don’t realize that their well-being was never part of the plan.