If you need food stamps, you can't afford a cell phone....well then

[Soph0571]

Exactly this......

[flor-de-jasmim]

1. A smart phone is more useful than a wall - I would rephrase:

If you can't afford a cell phone, then the prices should come down!

[democratisphere]

2. If you must add $1.4 trillion and more to the debt to provide a tax cut

to the wealthiest, you can't afford the tax cut. Duh.

[Aussie105]

3. Actually -

if you are on food stamps, you need a phone more than ever. For networking, applying for jobs, for emotional support on social media.

The rest of us? Phones are just toys we could live without.

Seen the same thing with refugees though. They have cell phones? Can't be REAL refugees!

[procon]

4. Both are a necessity of the modern world.

Food is obvious, and a cell phone is no less needful. For those who have little to nothing, a cell phone is a safety line in the event of a health crisis or other emergency. It's the only way to communicate, access public services, manage their money and bills, find charity outreach programs and other community aid.

It's not a one or the other option in the world we live in. The US is not some impoverished, underdeveloped 3rd world country where citizens subsist in a hardscrabble agrarian lifestyle. Our minimum standard of living requires certain basics just to survive.

[Farmer-Rick]

5. Not to push cell phone companies but

When RepubliCONS say the poor shouldn't get cell phones they are thinking of the hugely expensive luxury phone they always get. They are talking about the $150.00 a month ($1,800.00 a year) phone plans and overpriced fancy $800 phones.

You can get a $10 to $20 smart phone through Tracfone and an $6.67 a month plan ($80 a year). I get Tracfone because I'm cheap. My son tells me my cell phone plan is similar to what drug dealers and mobsters use. But hay I'm all for paying less.

[MicaelS]

6. If you qualify for SNAP and other programs..

You can get a free Lifeline phone which has unlimited texting, 300 minutes of talk time, and 1GB of data through SAFELINK.

[Archae]

12. I have a cellphone through that.

Free.

I keep it for emergencies if the power goes out.

[modrepub]

7. How about guns?

If you’re on food stamps how can you afford a $900 hand gun or rifle. And don’t tell this isn’t common out in the hinterlands of America because I’ve seen this myself.

[niyad]

8. apart from the other response, if one is on food stamps, there are programs that provide free

cell phones. get a clue, pukes.

[Grasswire2]

9. guess what? Ronald Reagan began a program that pays for phone service for low income people.

It's true.

Now, the RW calls them "obama phones"

But the program began with Reagan.

The Lifeline program is a legacy President Reagan could be proud of." Congress first enacted the Lifeline program in 1985, and the FCC expanded the program to cover cellphone service in 2005 during the George W. Bush administration. The program pays for phone service, not the phones themselves.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. People go on and off SNAP all the time; the only thing being on SNAP is a marker of is

being on SNAP.

[mucifer]

11. Almost everyone has a cell phone. Not everyone gets smart phones

That's just my experience being a home hospice nurse with lots of low income families. It's not a scientific study tho.

[ProudLib72]

13. If your political party needs help from a foreign power, vote suppression, and vote manipulation

to stay afloat, you shouldn't be a political party.