Soup in every pot, a toilet in every house, America has made promises about what is available to all. One of those things is a phone connection to call for help when needed.

This commitment, called universal service, has been under threat recently with Congressional Republicans making a big fuss about "Obamaphones", a code word for the Lifeline program which taxes big telecom to subsidize basic telephone service for the poor.

As Lifeline adjusts to the wireless age, opportunists see the opportunity to rework the regulatory terms so they are more favorable to the big companies.

This letter was sent by 25 nonprofits to Capital Hill to say hold on a minute.