About Those Obama Phones

From Charlie Sykes, a conservative talker:
The free cell phones are a good example. Fifty two year old Leon Simmons and his wife make only about $1,600 a month after taxes. Out of that, they are able to pay $159 a month for a landline telephone, high speed internet access, and cable television.
But under a new program of “wireless welfare,” they get their cell phone for free, complete with caller ID, call waiting, and voicemail. In a story on the rapid growth of  the program, Simmons  told the New York Times that he thought people walking around talking on cellphones look “silly.” But, he says, he’ll use his new one, and why not?
 “It’s free,” he explained.  As indeed it is, along with government-backed free text messaging.^[i]
Low income residents in a number of states are eligible to get free phones with limited minutes as long as they qualified for programs like Medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance, or other welfare program and had an income below 135% of the poverty level.^[1]
Few programs illustrate the “mission creep” of anti-poverty programs as clearly as the phone program, or how far many of those programs have drifted from a focus on providing basic needs to the destitute.  Medicaid for the sick, shelter for the homeless, food for the starving…. cell phones for the unconnected? How far we’ve come.  (A 2010 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 73 percent of adults listed as living in poverty nonetheless now own cell phones.)^[ii]
Most of those phones are distributed through a Mexican-owned company called Tracphone. Since November, 2008, the number of customers receiving free or subsidized wireless service has  more than doubled to 1.4 million.^[1]
Advocates have quickly turned the perk into an entitlement. The spokesman for the leading company offering the subsidized phone says, "Having a telephone service, just in general, is not a privilege, it should be a right of each one.” ^[iii][2] Presumably this means that they are also entitled to free text messages, call waiting, and caller ID as well.  http://www.620wtmj.com/blogs/charliesykes/171768861.html
Well, why didn't this loser member of the 47% and Obama voter give credit to Bush since he started the program?
So, this is the story about the Obama phones.  Did you even know about this program?  Neither did I.