1 in 10 Maryland residents get their telephone free from the Lifeline subsidy program. The Baltimore Sun reported Sunday that the number signed up for free telephones in the aptly named Free State has exploded 90-fold from a mere 5,821 in 2008 to nearly 509,000 in 2012. The number would have been higher if not for a targeted Federal Communications Commission audit that pushed more than 230,000 freeloading Marylanders off the program late last year.
The Lifeline program was started as part of the Universal Service Fund in 1985. Legislators from rural states thought it was a great idea to tax the telephones of city dwellers to cover the cost of running telephone lines to remote locations in, for example, Alaska. With tens of billions in taxes paid, the goal of universal service was accomplished. Landline phones are widely available with wireless alternatives available to fill gaps in availability. So the program shifted focus.
As much as supporters insist this program is needed for the poor, it smells more like a program for well-connected cronies. Calls have grown louder on Capitol Hill for congressional review, reform or even repeal of Lifeline. Reformers must be prepared, however, to run up against a gantlet of proponents, including telecommunications companies that have profited handsomely from this corporate welfare. The top Lifeline provider, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim’s TracFone, has received $1,506,634,841 from taxpayers. Mr. Slim is one of the major shareholders of The New York Times. Telecommunications firms won’t give up without a fight, and it’s up to the public, gouged on every telephone bill, to tell Congress to hang up the phone.
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