Calvey Says Taxpayers Should Not Get Stuck with Welfare Recipients’ Cell Phone Bills
Kevin Calvey - Friday, October 30, 2009
Oklahoma City (October 30, 2009) - Republican Congressional candidate Kevin Calvey today denounced a new federal program to provide cellular phones and airtime to welfare recipients.
“Taxpayers are hurting during this recession,” said Calvey. “It’s hard enough for working families to make ends meet with today’s tax burden, including having to pay for unjust corporate bailouts and other people’s health care and housing. But forcing taxpayers to pay for someone else’s luxury, like a cell phone, just adds insult to injury. Let those people buy their own cell phones.”
The new cell phone handout, recently added to federal program called Lifeline which subsidizes landline phone service to the poor, allows recipients of welfare programs to receive a cell phone and air time at taxpayer expense, and at no cost to the recipient. Oklahoma is not yet one of the states covered, but apparently plans exist to expand the program to Oklahoma.
Details of the program can be found at https://www.safelinkwireless.com/EnrollmentPublic/Home.aspx.
Kevin Calvey has been a small business owner since 1994, and served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1998-2006. During the 2003 state budget shortfall, Kevin helped negotiate 7% cuts in state agencies rather than raise taxes. In 2005, Kevin authored House bill 1547, the largest tax cut law in Oklahoma history, which saves taxpayers over $400 million per year. Kevin left politics in 2006 and then volunteered to deploy to Iraq with the Army National Guard. His mission in Iraq was to prosecute al Qaeda leaders and other terrorists in the Iraqi court system. Kevin was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his service. Kevin and his wife, Toni, live in Oklahoma City with their baby, Anastasia. |
