This is the “Obama Phone” video that has gone viral on YouTube:

The Washington Examiner posted a story yesterday about the federal program behind the Obama Phones.

The article reports:

The program is called Lifeline, established in 1984, originally created to subsidize landline phone service for low income Americans, funded by government-collected telecommunication fees, paid by consumers.

In 2008, the program was expanded to support cell phones which quickly escalated the cost of the program. In 2008 the program cost $772 million, but by 2011 it cost $1.6 billion.

The article points out that many of the people receiving free cell phones had signed up for free phones from two or more carriers.

The video below (posted on YouTube), produced by Rep. Tim Griffin R-Ark, provides a common sense solution to the outrageous growth in the free phone program:

This is one of many programs that could be changed in order to reduce the federal deficit!