Haste Makes Waste? No Kidding - "Stimulus" Checks Sent to Dead People

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 4:19 PM

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.

Wait, it gets better:

Social Security representatives said there is a good explanation. Of the about 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.

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.

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 without time constraints.  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.

H/T Bridgett Wagner, Heritage Foundation

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