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posted by janrinok on Monday May 07 2018, @01:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the now-you-see-it dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941

Pai accused of reverse Robin Hood for business buddies:

This week, one year after the US government's General Accountability Office (GAO) formally recommended that it do so, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved $8bn it held in a private bank to the US Treasury.

But even though the move has long been planned for and anticipated, it has caused a furious reaction from the organization's own commissioners as well as lawmakers who are concerned it will result in money being pulled away from citizens and given to giant corporations.

The $8bn is the regulator's Universal Service Fund – a program used to subsidize telephone bills and broadband connections for lower-income citizens across the nation. Everyone pays into that fund, typically through a small monthly fee, around 9 cents, on your phone bill.

[...] "In the dark of night last week, without taking any vote the FCC moved billions of USF dollars to a new account," railed Jessica Rosenworcel on Twitter. "In doing so it sacrificed $50 million in annual interest that could have been used to support rural broadband, telemedicine & internet in schools. That's a shame."

Two days later, Rosenworcel was joined by her fellow Democratic commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who also took to Twitter to complain. "The transfer of USF dollars to the US Treasury is now underway," she complained. "What does this mean for us? A loss of more than $55,000,000 in annual interest which could have provided service to 495,495 Lifeline subscribers. Fiscal responsibility? Not!"

Source:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/04/fcc_8bn_us_treasury_universal_service_fund/


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @02:36AM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @02:36AM (#676540)

    Namely is good to collect money from paisanos to feed the corporations.
    I can't fathom why the US conservative bitch against the government.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday May 07 2018, @04:30AM (8 children)

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Monday May 07 2018, @04:30AM (#676551) Journal

      > I can't fathom why the US conservative bitch against the government.

      They're faking, of course. It's all a pose. When it's a government program to help the people then conservatives scream about fiscal irresponsibility and balancing the budget and moral hazard, that is, that little moochers will abuse the program to the hilt and get free rides on the backs of the rest of us. The screaming is particularly intense when liberals are in control. That's how the US ended up with a surplus at the end of the Clinton presidency. It was done to take the wind out of such arguments, and it mostly did.

      Then, when the conservatives gain control, they show everyone that they were lying their asses off about fiscal responsibility by blowing the surplus to make their rich buddies a lot richer, while the rest of us get the shaft. The 2003 War on Iraq cost us a shitload, and many oil companies and military suppliers made a killing off the whole ugly affair. Sadly, a lot of the voters were easily distracted by noise about the so-called social conservative values. It's okay if their representatives give away the store to the rich, if they get abortion banned and medical care even more privatized than it already is, school prayer allowed and "teach the controversy" in the curriculum, Climate Change denied and "drill baby drill" supported, dark skinned peoples blamed and sidelined, a gun in every white male hand, Muslims kicked out and Muslim nations invaded and conquered, and whatever else I missed.

      Heck, many are dazzled by the notion that wealth is mystically connected to virtue, and is a sign of God's favor, the whole Prosperity Gospel thing. Under that thinking, the rich can do no wrong. Just a small mental step from that to Might makes Right, and that because the West is militarily much, much stronger than the Islamic world, it must mean Christianity is superior to Islam, and they're terribly unhappy that those damn liberals won't let them try to murder every Muslim and godless Atheist in the world that won't convert to Christianity, Freedom of Religion be damned.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @04:46AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @04:46AM (#676553)

        The screaming screeching is particularly intense when liberals are in control.

        Screaming involve lungs, existence of lungs implies a higher stage of evolution. Case at point, cockroacked don't scream.

      • (Score: 1) by Curious George on Monday May 07 2018, @05:31AM (6 children)

        by Curious George (6763) on Monday May 07 2018, @05:31AM (#676557)

        I'm dazzled at your ability to adhere strongly to the Democratic party narrative as if they are some vastly superior champion of the people. The whole good vs. evil story is really played out, did you even read the article?
        People with power will be people with power. I think the Bible says something about rich men and camels...

        • (Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Monday May 07 2018, @05:53AM (1 child)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 07 2018, @05:53AM (#676558) Journal

          I'm dazzled at your ability to adhere strongly to the Democratic party narrative as if they are some vastly superior champion of the people....

          And you doubt it???

          People with power will be people with power. I think the Bible says something about rich men and camels...

          Speaking of "champions of the people", clearly, Jesus was a Democrat.
          Want a proof? Go no further than: "give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar", clearly a sign of favoring higher taxes and bigger government!

          (large grin)

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday May 07 2018, @06:30PM

            by bob_super (1357) on Monday May 07 2018, @06:30PM (#676726)

            Depends on the "people".
            Republicans are the unquestioned champions of both the undesired unborn people, and the people who forgot they were just screaming about deficits but really like a tax cut.

            Let's not talk of camels and rich people, for I shall not judge those who enjoy alternative beauty pageants.

        • (Score: 5, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Monday May 07 2018, @07:30AM (2 children)

          by bzipitidoo (4388) on Monday May 07 2018, @07:30AM (#676573) Journal

          The Republicans are correct about a number of things. Moral hazard is real. Poverty is far more complicated than a simple story of the rich stealing from the poor. "Made bad decisions" is also real. The playing field is tilted, but not so much that the disadvantaged can't still win a few. Hares do sometimes lose to tortoises.

          But, these days Republicans are their own worst enemies. They have courted stupidity and embraced propaganda and lies. Perhaps all politicians lie, but not to this extent. That's no Democratic narrative either, there's plenty of unfiltered whoppers straight from the lips of Republicans, such as Akin, Mourdock, Roy Moore, and of course The Donald. These are not freak occurrences. Cheney and Wolfowitz were the chief neocons who stampeded us into that 2003 War on Iraq, lying about Iraq having Weapons of Mass Destruction. The Republican party has gone off the rails. Why the hell try to deny that Global Warming is real? Many of the actions we can take to deal with Global Warming are a good idea even if there is no Global Warming problem, yet the Republicans stubbornly oppose them anyway. It's bigger even than that. The Republicans dare to shit on science itself. They used to respect science, if not for itself, then at least as a means to have a military edge.

          • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @07:31AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @07:31AM (#676574)

            "But how will I implement that feature?" That was the question that currently plagued Chapperson, who worked as a software developer. You see, a particularly troublesome boss had given the developer a hard-to-fulfill task, and he was expected to do so within a short timeframe; such was this man's life. Still, he enjoyed developing software because it often presented him with unique challenges. As the man was thinking about this, he looked downward. "Oh!" Chapperson exclaimed.

            He hadn't even realized it. Since it was normal for Chapperson, he must have unconsciously done this. What did this man do? A woman could be seen pinned down under Chapperson; her body was covered in blood and bruises, and she was naked. How had this happened without him realizing it?

            Chapperson then recalled that this phenomenon was quite common. Since rape was as natural to men as breathing, of course this sort of thing would happen occasionally. And, naturally, if someone were to tell an entire group of people to stop breathing, they would be looked at as genocidal maniacs. No, telling a man to stop raping was even worse; depriving men of their enjoyment in life was the same as torture. Therefore, anyone who believed such things would be labeled as a feminist, tortured, and then promptly executed. Chapperson became furious just by thinking about the mere concept of a feminist existing. He became furious; furious, and rough. Broken.

            The woman's face was broken. Even though he hadn't meant to, Chapperson had smashed her face to pieces and ended her wretched life in the process. This, too, was as natural as breathing. Chapperson then realized that a small child - probably the child of this woman - was crying in the background. The man smiled, and then took a deep breath. Yes, just like with the woman, Chapperson breathed. There was no longer a crying child, or any child making any sound whatsoever.

            A man walked out of a certain house. This man had his index finger pressed up against the bottom of his chin as he walked, showing off his inquisive nature to the world. "Now, then, how shall I implement that feature?" the man muttered to himself, as he walked away...

          • (Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Monday May 07 2018, @09:13AM

            by cubancigar11 (330) on Monday May 07 2018, @09:13AM (#676592) Homepage Journal

            They have courted stupidity and embraced propaganda and lies.

            Two concerns:

            A) It has always been stupidity and embracing of propaganda and lies behind democracy. Even hundreds of years ago.

            B) The current rhetoric win is what they learned from supporters of Democrats. Notice, I didn't say democrats - they are politicians who are just looking for a way to get votes. The whole social propaganda thing is an invention of a group of people, I would not name, who created a vote-bank and sold it democrats and consequently forced republicans to fund their own search of vote-bank.

        • (Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @09:40AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @09:40AM (#676599)

          People with power will be people with power. I think the Bible says something about rich men and camels...

          "When you are rich you can grab them by the cameltoe and they don't mind."

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday May 07 2018, @04:05PM

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Monday May 07 2018, @04:05PM (#676676) Journal

    How does taking the funds from the private sector and putting it into government benefit Pai's "business buddies?" And why is a recommendation from GAO seen as a particularly Republican move? I'm no fan of Ajit Pai but this seems to be a stretch when the GAO stated:

    Further, FCC maintains the Universal Service Fund (USF)—with net assets exceeding $9 billion, as of September 2016—outside the Department of the Treasury in a private bank account. In 2005, GAO reported that FCC should reconsider this arrangement given the USF consists of federal funds. In addition to addressing any risks associated with having the funds outside the Treasury, where they do not enjoy the same rigorous management practices and regulatory safeguards as other federal programs, FCC identified potential benefits of moving the funds. For example, by having the funds in the Treasury, USF payments could be used to offset other federal debts, and would provide USAC with better tools for fiscal management of the funds. In March 2017, FCC developed a preliminary plan to move the USF to the Treasury. Until FCC finalizes and implements its plan and actually moves the USF funds, the risks that FCC identified will persist and the benefits of having the funds in the Treasury will not be realized.

    from https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-538 [gao.gov]

    Seems to me like the Democrats are making this one partisan.

    --
    This sig for rent.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @05:25PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @05:25PM (#676693)

    so they steal my money to give to "the poor" and then they horde it until it's 8 billion? i thought they were stealing that money to build the interwebs for the poor? fucking thieves, the whole cess pool.

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