Obama wants to tack on $5-a-year phone tax to fund high-speed Internet in schools
critics blast ‘end run’ of Congress and ‘endless expansion of program at the expense of rate payers’
By GEOFF EARLE
Last Updated: 7:17 AM, August 15, 2013
Posted: 1:37 AM, August 15, 2013
WASHINGTON — That’s one way to “cell” a fee hike.
Unwilling to ask Congress for extra funds to pay for high-speed Internet connections in schools, President Obama is instead looking to tack yet another charge on cellphones through the Federal Communications Commission.
The new program, called ConnectED, would expand an existing school-wiring effort and cost each cellphone user about $5 a year, said White House officials.
In New York City, the ubiquitous mobile devices already carry 10 separate city, state and federal fees and charges — and that doesn’t include sales taxes.
Obama is relying on the fee hike to avoid dealing with a Congress that White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest yesterday described as “dysfunctional.”
“You would think that connecting schools to the information superhighway would be a pretty noncontroversial topic,” Earnest told reporters in Martha’s Vineyard, where the first family is on vacation.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t seen a lot of action in Congress, so the president has advocated an administrative, unilateral action to get this done.”
Administration officials said the added fee would sunset after three years after generating about $6 billion.
https://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/obama_celling_out_UtCvorWrEsMDxEheVWEmKO
Considering the way the idiots in congress work if at all maybe this is the way to go.
No way, a Democrat wants to raise taxes? Don’t worry, just apply for an Obama Phone and you won’t have to pay for anything, .let alone the new tax.
Don’t get a job and you’ll receive food stamps, get an Obama phone and get Obamacare too!