So You Think Giving Money to Dead People Stimulates the Economy - Really!?!

So here is a little taste of your "stimulus" dollars at work:

As WBAL TV reports,

"Millions of Americans on Social Security are receiving $250 checks as part of the president's stimulus plan -- including an Anne Arundel woman who died more than 40 years ago."

So apparently Obama, Reid, and Pelosi think giving money to a woman who died way back during the "Summer of Love" is going to stimulate the economy and create jobs - Really!?!

Wait, it gets better (read: worse):

"Social Security representatives said there is a good explanation. Of the approximately 52 million checks that have been mailed out, about 10,000 of those have been sent to people who are deceased."

"The agency blames the error on the strict mid-June deadline of mailing out all of the checks, which didn't leave officials much time to clean up all of their records."

So Obama, Pelosi, and Reid think that sending a check to one dead person is not a enough, but that 10,000 deceased welfare recipients would be much more stimulative - Really!?! I guess when Obama said that we need to spread the wealth around, he forgot to add that he thinks we should spread the wealth underground too.

The Feds then have the gall to claim that the aforementioned "make death pay" checks were inadvertantly mailed because of a tight deadline - Really!?! You don't think that perhaps, I don't know, it was due to the fact that Obama, Pelosi, and Reid rushed the largest spending bill in history through congress with little to no oversight or scrutiny? Really!?!

Two things:

One - how long does it take for government to clean up their records? In this particular case, the recipient of the check died in 1967. So the goverment does a census every ten years, never forgets to raid our bank accounts every April, but doesn't "update its records" in over 40 years? Really!?!

Two - if the problem is that they didn't have "much time" because of the strict mid-June deadline" this will just be the tip of the iceberg.  There is a lot of fraud, waste, abuse and improper payments when government spends money.  Given that the "stimulus" money is being rushed out the door, one can only imagine how much waste and fraud will occur.

All the more reason for more transparency as the money is being spent, however, as we're hearing over and over again from the administration, we'll likely get a spending autopsy at best.

This installment of Really!?! with Americans for Tax Reform is based on a recent post from the Center for Fiscal Accountability.

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