Freedomshift

Now that the government has taken over the internet in order to treat it like a water company, we find within the 400 pages of regulations some gems such as this:    Low-income consumers may be set to have essentially free, taxpayer-subsidized Internet service, similar to the notorious Obamaphone, following the federal government’s takeover of the web. All three democrat members of the Federal Communications Commission have openly announced intentions to provide broadband Internet subsidies for the poor through the government’s Lifeline Assistance Program, started under President Ronald Reagan more than 30 years ago. Lifeline, originally intended to help the poor attain landline phones, eventually morphed with the times to provide prepaid wireless service (Obamaphones) and now seems destined for Internet reform. “I have… been vocal about my call to modernize the Lifeline program, which has been stuck in an MC Hammer, parachute-pants time warp since ...

While by now everyone should know the answer, for those curious why the US unemployment rate just slid once more to a meager 5.9%, the lowest print since the summer of 2008, the answer is the same one we have shown every month since 2010: the collapse in the labor force participation rate, which in September slid from an already three decade low 62.8% to 62.7% - the lowest in over 36 years, matching the February 1978 lows. And while according to the Household Survey, 232,000 people found jobs, what is more disturbing is that the people not in the labor force, rose to a new record high, increasing by 315,000 to 92.6 million! And that's how you get a fresh cycle low in the unemployment rate. Read more: here

(CNSNews.com) - Americans who were recipients of means-tested government benefits in 2011 outnumbered year-round full-time workers, according to data released this month by the Census Bureau. They also out-numbered the total population of the Philippines. There were 108,592,000 people in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2011 who were recipients of one or more means-tested government benefit programs, the Census Bureau said in data released this week. Meanwhile, according to the Census Bureau, there were 101,716,000 people who worked full-time year round in 2011. That included both private-sector and government workers. See more at: cnsnews

Those who regard government "entitlement" programs as sacrosanct, and regard those who want to cut them back as calloused or cruel, picture a world very different from the world of reality.  To listen to some of the defenders of entitlement programs, which are at the heart of the present financial crisis, you might think that anything the government fails to provide is something that people will be deprived of.  In other words, if you cut spending on school lunches, children will go hungry. If you fail to subsidize housing, people will be homeless. If you fail to subsidize prescription drugs, old people will have to eat dog food in order to be able to afford their meds.  This is the vision promoted by many politicians and much of the media. But, in the world of reality, it is not even true for most people who are living below the official poverty line.  Most Americans living below the official poverty line own a car or truck – and government entitlement programs seld...