There isn't a person in their right mind that would approve $24,000 of tax money to allow one well off person to have a phone. That is until that person somehow receives compensation for this gross abuse.
Can you imagine they have the nerve to charge us 4.5 billion a year so well to do people can have a wired land line? Did you see the houses these phones are in?
Since not one of the people using these lines would ever opt to waste $24,000 per year of their own money on this knowing modern technology offers other options, who thought this was a good idea and gave it the OK?
When something doesn't make sense and looks this fishy, I say follow the money because 45 billion dollars in just 10 years has to be lining the pockets of some POS.