10 Surprising Facts about Free Government Cell Phones. You’ve heard about the free government cell phone program, a favorite whipping boy of ours, which this industry site estimates costs taxpayers $2 billion in 2011. Here’s a Top 10 list of things that shows just how crazy it all is. Our favorite is “#6: Illegal aliens are welcome: The program’s rules don’t exclude non-U.S. citizens…” Hold on, another favorite, #8, which says, “the government estimates that 200,000 of Puerto Ricans have fraudulent free phone accounts.” Better just read them all.
