Yet another place to get back tax money: Phone bills
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JoeUser Forums
Here's another place where we can save money for all. Yet another fine example of "Waste, Fraud, and Abuse" when the Government gets it's hands on "revenue".
Of course there are still plenty who think we need more and higher taxes, and not less.
Perhaps before we see another article crying for these higher taxes, some might want to read the following article, which is just one of many that could be written about what happens with "tax money" once it's being collected.
As always, headline is linked.
Cheaper phone bills on the horizon?
March 21, 2005, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh
Don't get too excited yet, but there's a chance your monthly telephone bill will get a few dollars cheaper.
Some members of Congress have begun speculating whether a government entitlement program riddled with waste and corruption and funded by taxes on telecommunications companies should be terminated. If the so-called E-rate program ended, the average phone bill would drop by $10 or more a year, an annual total of $2.25 billion.
Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, suggested at a hearing last week that the E-rate program had become a billion-dollar boondoggle. "This committee has no choice but to develop legislation to scrap the status quo and apply some common sense to the E-rate program," the Texas Republican said.
E-rate was created in 1996 to wire schools and libraries to the Internet by providing discounts of up to 90 percent on approved products and services. Since then, E-rate administrators have vacuumed in $14.6 billion in telecommunications taxes but have, inexplicably, handed out only $9.2 billion.
A recent Government Accountability Office report exposes the Federal Communications Commission's slipshod management of the E-rate program. Among the GAO's findings: There's no way to tell whether E-rate is working or worth keeping around, its current setup likely violates federal law, and nobody seems to be in charge.
"FCC established an unusual structure for the E-rate program but has never conducted a comprehensive assessment of which federal requirements, policies and practices apply," the report concluded. No wonder one E-rate "provider" pleaded guilty last year to bid rigging and wire fraud, and agreed to pay $20 million in restitution.
If E-rate were run by a private firm that had to follow standard accounting rules, this scheme would have been toast long ago.
But this is Washington, D.C., where the mere act of questioning an entitlement program counts as political doughtiness of the first order. Barton deserves credit for being courageous enough to raise the possibility of rethinking E-rate, which has been a third rail of technology policy for nearly a decade.
"The mismanagement of the E-rate program seems to know few bounds," Barton said. "Unscrupulous vendors have fleeced the program, while underserved communities and telephone customers are paying the price. The FCC, these merchants and certain schools all must share the blame for this disgrace."
This is shaping up to be a partisan divide. At last week's hearing, Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., suggested that he might be open to modest reforms such as moving E-rate away from the FCC and to another agency. More partisan Democrats, including Michigan's John Dingell and Bart Stupak, seem opposed to any changes.
A taxing reform process
A decade ago, when Internet connections were rare and expensive, there was some justification for a national effort to link up schools and libraries.
Today, though, broadband connections are plentiful and inexpensive: More than 94.3 percent of U.S. ZIP codes had high-speed lines available through one or more providers as of last year. In 2002, according to the Department of Education's estimates, 99 percent of public schools and 92 percent of school classrooms enjoyed Internet hookups. Thanks to cheaper products and wireless connections, those numbers are probably approaching 100 percent today.
... more at linked article
Such a complimentary article about the waste and abuse in the system.
I was thinking this morning about why is it that I can get a full suite of phone services from Vonage for well under half of what the costs would be if I went with Verizon or some reseller of Verizon's services.
Even where Verizon advertises a package of "unlimited services" at $49 a month, by the time all of the stupid taxes and fees are added in, my service runs near or over $60 a month.
I'm not trying to sell anyone on Vonage here. I have some issues of my own with them (do a google search on Vonage Tivo DirecTV and you'll see problems similar to those I'm having). They aren't perfect, but they are a pretty reasonable alternative to wired phone services. And what is making them such a nice alternative? Cost.
Vonage and their competitors (Lingo, ATT CallVantage, etc.) are much cheaper because they are operating in "deregulated" space. The FCC has specifically come down on their behalf to wipe out legislation, taxes and fees that might stifle growth in that area, and it's left much cheaper service for consumers to take advantage of.
With that said, I happened upon the article above today and see that yet again we have a fine and glaring example of what happens when money that should be going to some specific purposes is collected by the government. We have literally billions of dollars going into the government's hands that is just being wasted.
All while being subjected to the slow torture of article after article crying for higher taxes to balance the budget and eliminate deficit spending. I guess perhaps I should start complaining about those articles as being "cruel and inhumane", then perhaps liberals might actually support my efforts for less harping on such subjects
Of course there are still plenty who think we need more and higher taxes, and not less.
Perhaps before we see another article crying for these higher taxes, some might want to read the following article, which is just one of many that could be written about what happens with "tax money" once it's being collected.
As always, headline is linked.
Cheaper phone bills on the horizon?
March 21, 2005, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh
Don't get too excited yet, but there's a chance your monthly telephone bill will get a few dollars cheaper.
Some members of Congress have begun speculating whether a government entitlement program riddled with waste and corruption and funded by taxes on telecommunications companies should be terminated. If the so-called E-rate program ended, the average phone bill would drop by $10 or more a year, an annual total of $2.25 billion.
Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, suggested at a hearing last week that the E-rate program had become a billion-dollar boondoggle. "This committee has no choice but to develop legislation to scrap the status quo and apply some common sense to the E-rate program," the Texas Republican said.
E-rate was created in 1996 to wire schools and libraries to the Internet by providing discounts of up to 90 percent on approved products and services. Since then, E-rate administrators have vacuumed in $14.6 billion in telecommunications taxes but have, inexplicably, handed out only $9.2 billion.
A recent Government Accountability Office report exposes the Federal Communications Commission's slipshod management of the E-rate program. Among the GAO's findings: There's no way to tell whether E-rate is working or worth keeping around, its current setup likely violates federal law, and nobody seems to be in charge.
"FCC established an unusual structure for the E-rate program but has never conducted a comprehensive assessment of which federal requirements, policies and practices apply," the report concluded. No wonder one E-rate "provider" pleaded guilty last year to bid rigging and wire fraud, and agreed to pay $20 million in restitution.
If E-rate were run by a private firm that had to follow standard accounting rules, this scheme would have been toast long ago.
But this is Washington, D.C., where the mere act of questioning an entitlement program counts as political doughtiness of the first order. Barton deserves credit for being courageous enough to raise the possibility of rethinking E-rate, which has been a third rail of technology policy for nearly a decade.
"The mismanagement of the E-rate program seems to know few bounds," Barton said. "Unscrupulous vendors have fleeced the program, while underserved communities and telephone customers are paying the price. The FCC, these merchants and certain schools all must share the blame for this disgrace."
This is shaping up to be a partisan divide. At last week's hearing, Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., suggested that he might be open to modest reforms such as moving E-rate away from the FCC and to another agency. More partisan Democrats, including Michigan's John Dingell and Bart Stupak, seem opposed to any changes.
A taxing reform process
A decade ago, when Internet connections were rare and expensive, there was some justification for a national effort to link up schools and libraries.
Today, though, broadband connections are plentiful and inexpensive: More than 94.3 percent of U.S. ZIP codes had high-speed lines available through one or more providers as of last year. In 2002, according to the Department of Education's estimates, 99 percent of public schools and 92 percent of school classrooms enjoyed Internet hookups. Thanks to cheaper products and wireless connections, those numbers are probably approaching 100 percent today.
... more at linked article
Such a complimentary article about the waste and abuse in the system.
I was thinking this morning about why is it that I can get a full suite of phone services from Vonage for well under half of what the costs would be if I went with Verizon or some reseller of Verizon's services.
Even where Verizon advertises a package of "unlimited services" at $49 a month, by the time all of the stupid taxes and fees are added in, my service runs near or over $60 a month.
I'm not trying to sell anyone on Vonage here. I have some issues of my own with them (do a google search on Vonage Tivo DirecTV and you'll see problems similar to those I'm having). They aren't perfect, but they are a pretty reasonable alternative to wired phone services. And what is making them such a nice alternative? Cost.
Vonage and their competitors (Lingo, ATT CallVantage, etc.) are much cheaper because they are operating in "deregulated" space. The FCC has specifically come down on their behalf to wipe out legislation, taxes and fees that might stifle growth in that area, and it's left much cheaper service for consumers to take advantage of.
With that said, I happened upon the article above today and see that yet again we have a fine and glaring example of what happens when money that should be going to some specific purposes is collected by the government. We have literally billions of dollars going into the government's hands that is just being wasted.
All while being subjected to the slow torture of article after article crying for higher taxes to balance the budget and eliminate deficit spending. I guess perhaps I should start complaining about those articles as being "cruel and inhumane", then perhaps liberals might actually support my efforts for less harping on such subjects
