http://news.com.com/Cheaper+phone+bills+on+the+horizon/2010-1071_3-5626169.html Cheaper phone bills on the horizon? March 21, 2005, 4:00 AM PT By Declan McCullagh Don't get too excited yet, but there's a chance your monthly telephone bill will get a few dollars cheaper. Some members of Congress have begun speculating whether a government entitlement program riddled with waste and corruption and funded by taxes on telecommunications companies should be terminated. If the so-called E-rate program ended, the average phone bill would drop by $10 or more a year, an annual total of $2.25 billion. Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, suggested at a hearing last week that the E-rate program had become a billion-dollar boondoggle. "This committee has no choice but to develop legislation to scrap the status quo and apply some common sense to the E-rate program," the Texas Republican said. [...remainder snipped...] _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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