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."