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10/10/12, "Carlos Slim, World's Richest Man, Profiting Off 'Obamaphones' Aimed At Helping The Poor," Huffington Post
"The world’s richest man is apparently making a lot of money off a government program aimed at helping the poor Americans.
Every time someone gets a phone through Lifeline, a government
program that gives phones to low-income Americans, TracPhone, a company
in which Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim has a controlling stake, nets $10,
Fox News reports. The company’s CEO, Frederick “F.J.” Pollak, who is a
major Obama donor, also makes a profit from the data plans and minutes
beneficiaries of the Lifeline program buy.
The Lifeline program has been pushed into the spotlight recently after a video surfaced of an Obama supporter
saying she would be voting for the president because he gave her a free
phone. Though the woman credited Obama for her phone, the president
didn’t start Lifeline; it began in 1984...as a landline-only program, and President Clinton expanded it to include cell phones in 1996, according to the Atlantic Wire.
After the “Obamaphone Lady” video was posted on The Drudge Report, some alleged that the video's widespread circulation was fueled by racism, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Regardless of the controversy over the phone itself, the allegations
that Slim is benefiting off a program aimed at helping the poor may only
fuel characterizations of the $69 billion man
as a super-rich mogul who capitalizes on the woes of others. Slim’s son
noted in an interview with Bloomberg in May that his father was taking
advantage of the “opportunities” provided by the European Debt Crisis.
Critics, including hundreds of protesters at George Washington University in May, have also accused Slim of making his money
off the backs of the Mexican people, as well as off of stifling the
country’s economic development. Slim has additionally urged us normals
to continue working until we’re at least 70, arguing that it would help to boost the world’s struggling economies." via Drudge
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May 19, 2010, "Got Cash? Obama's Second State Dinner Is Just Like the First," ABCnews.com, Matthew Mosk
"The man Forbes called "the wealthiest man on earth" was among the
stratospherically-high rollers in Washington Wednesday evening as guests
at President Obama's second formal state dinner, this one honoring
Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.
Carlos Slim, whose $53-plus billion in holdings put him atop the Forbes'
list of super-wealthy in March, joined more than a dozen top "bundlers"
– major fundraisers -- from Obama's 2008 campaign on the guest list. So
did a handful of Hollywood luminaries, including actress Whoopi
Goldberg.
It was clear after more than 30 top donors and fundraisers filed into
the last White House state dinner in November that the Obama
administration did not plan to break from a long tradition of using the
majestic affairs to reward big-dollar political backers....
Since individual contributions to a candidate are capped, "bundlers"
solicit and collect money from a large number of individuals and then
present it to a candidate. The Obama administration selectively
included the affiliations of the guest on its official list, including
the information for more public figures on the list, while omitting
their big donors' employers."...
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