FuckFace disconnecting access to internet for 12.5Million low income folks

[jodymarie aimee]

Last edited Thu Feb 8, 2018, 05:16 PM - Edit history (1)

There is a petition to sign....

Even as Trump's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was repealing net neutrality, FCC chairman Ajit Pai was launching another attack on our ability to communicate – by threatening to cut the Lifeline program. Lifeline helps 12.5 million low-income people access internet or phone service.1 Now Pai wants to disconnect them.

The FCC is currently considering Pai's proposal to slash Lifeline. We need a strong show of opposition to resist his plan.

Tell the FCC: Don't cut the Lifeline program. Click here to sign the petition.

Broadband internet access is critical for completing schoolwork and applying for jobs – the very things that can help people make it out of poverty. By cutting Lifeline, Pai would make it even harder for low-income families to get ahead. This is the latest assault on the most vulnerable and marginalized in our society.

The program has helped low-income and rural household access phone service since 1985. Under President Obama, the FCC expanded Lifeline to include broadband internet and mobile phone service.

Pai's plan could eliminate access for 70 percent of Lifeline mobile users. He has proposed cutting Lifeline support for resellers, or phone carriers that use other carriers' networks. Because resellers are often cheaper than the major carriers, 70 percent of Lifeline users rely on them for service.2 While there have been problems with some unscrupulous resellers, Pai's plan would eliminate them all from the Lifeline program, leaving consumers without affordable options – and with no options in some places.3

Pai also wants to impose a budget cap on Lifeline and limit the internet service providers that can offer subsidized service. While these changes are still just proposals, he has already made some cuts to the program. The FCC voted to eliminate a special subsidy for consumers living in Tribal areas unless they switch from resellers to major carriers like AT&T or Sprint.4 When this goes into effect, some Tribal areas could lose access to Lifeline entirely.

At a time when the Trump Tax Scam has given away billions by slashing taxes for the wealthy and corporations, Trump's FCC wants to nickel and dime low-income Americans. Instead of proposing commonsense reforms to improve accountability, Pai is trying to gut a program that has helped Americans for over 30 years.

Tell the FCC: Don't cut the Lifeline program. Click below to sign the petition:

SIGN YOUR NAME

[Angry Dragon]

1. nothing but assholes

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Might want to change to 12.5 MILLION in the headline ... nt

[progressoid]

3. Petition? Ha! Like that's gonna make any difference.

[Squinch]

4. The people I know who use those Lifeline phones are moms of profoundly disabled children.

They did what the republicans want: they had the kids, knowing the kids would need round-the-clock care.

They are giving the round-the-clock care so they can't work.

Most of their husbands have left them because the responsibility for a profoundly disabled is such a huge weight that it can only be shouldered by heroes, like these moms I know.

They can't work so they MUST take all the assistance they can get.

They have to be able to call an ambulance, so they MUST take these phones.

So the republicans and the republican president are showing their family values by taking away all the things that help them keep their children alive.

All life is sacred. Unless it requires money and food. Then the republicans and the republican president are content to let it die slowly and painfully. While destroying the sanity of its mother.

[applegrove]

5. Pulling up the ladder behind themselves like countries where there

Last edited Thu Feb 8, 2018, 08:24 PM - Edit history (1)

is rampant graft, corruption and an entrenched 1%.

[lpbk2713]

6. The FCC is just a rubber stamp.

Cable/Telecoms draw up the rules and regs and pass them
on to their stooges at the FCC to make it the law of the land.

[Matthew28]

7. The republican party

main platform is to make the poor even poorer so they can be cheap labor for the super rich. That is all they see us as.

[smirkymonkey]

8. What a rotten, heartless bastard!

The republicans can stand to see anybody who isn't rich get a hand up. It's obscene. I really don't know how these people live with themselves. I just hope that Karma is a thing, and I hope I am around long enough to see it bite them in the ass.