(Washington, D.C.) – Gen. Wesley Clark is scheduled to appear at the Baton Rouge Press Club today at 12:00 pm CT to promote the free government cell phone program known as Lifeline. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) has repeatedly asked Gen. Clark to answer questions about who is funding his campaign supporting Lifeline and has challenged him to a debate on the issue. Vitter has legislation to end the free government cell phone program and restore the Lifeline program to its original intent of landlines.

“General Clark has refused to come clean about where the funding for his campaign to support the fraud-ridden Lifeline program is coming from, so I hope he’ll answer that today while he’s in Louisiana,” Vitter said.

Vitter has challenged Gen. Clark to debate the merits of Lifeline, but Clark has yet to accept the invitation. Vitter has also asked Clark a number of questions regarding his support of the program that he has never answered.

• Gen. Clark Refuses to Respond to Vitter on Free Cell Phones
• Vitter Urges Gen. Clark to Agree to Free Cell Phone Debate, Disclose Campaign’s Financial Supporters
• Vitter Asks Gen. Clark to Accept a Date for Free Cell Phone Debate, Disclose Who’s Paying for his Campaign
• Gen. Clark Agrees to Debate Vitter About Free Government Cell Phone Program
• Vitter Challenges Gen. Wesley Clark to Free Government Cell Phone Debate

Vitter has provided a list of seven suggested questions for the media to ask Gen. Clark today:

1) Press reports of your previous visits to Louisiana included quotes from your spokesperson as saying vaguely that a “public affairs company that represents veterans advocacy groups” sponsored your trip. Who are this company and its financial backers?

2) In particular, do any companies who receive funds from the fraud-ridden Lifeline program, like TracFone or others, financially support this public affairs company, you, your liberal political PAC, or any company in which you have a significant interest? If so, by whom and how much?

3) Are you aware that one of the top Lifeline companies, TracFone, alone profited $460 million from Lifeline in 2012 by collecting money from customers who pay a cell phone bill?

4) The Lifeline program in Maryland grew 10,000 percent from 2009 to 2012 to 645,000 recipients, a number that is double the number of people who should be eligible. Do you know the number of people in Louisiana that are eligible?

5) Do you know the number of fraudulent phones that have been given to Louisianians?

6) You often talk about how the Lifeline program is in the middle of partisan politics. With the ongoing and repeated reports of major fraud and abuse in the Lifeline cell phone program, do you think you should be working together to stop the extreme waste, fraud and abuse instead of expanding the program?

7) Why do you refuse to debate Sen. David Vitter on this issue? It was reported that you agreed to debate him while speaking with him on the phone, but have never responded to multiple dates that he has proposed.

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