Friday, May 15, 2009

Dead people vote … Now dead people get stimulus checks. ACORN at work?

Drudge carries this provocative headline: MILLIONS IN STIMULUS CHECKS: FOR DEAD PEOPLE? There have been a number of reports of people who died dozens of years ago being sent $250 stimulus checks. The Social Security Administration says only about 8,000 to 10,000 went out to dead people because SSA had no record of their deaths. It’s interesting they have such a detailed record of the number of incorrect names, so soon. Sounds fishy. It might have been helpful if they had used it in advance. My Fox New York reports on a case where the dead recipient was never part of the Social Security system, having left the country in 1933 before it was established: But when her son finally opened it, they saw that the check was made out to her father, Romolo Romonini, who died in Italy 34 years ago. He'd been a U.S. citizen when he left for Italy in 1933, but only returned to the United Stated for a seven-month visit in 1969. The Santopadres are not alone. The Social Security Administration, which sent out 52 million checks, says that some of those checks mistakenly went to dead people because the agency had no record of their death. That amounts to between 8,000 and 10,000 checks for millions of dollars. The feds blame a rushed schedule, because all the checks have to be cut by June. The strange this is, some of the checks were made out to people -- like Romonini -- who were never even part of the Social Security system. Now the question is, did SSA get the names from its own list or one generated by ACORN?

1 comment:

grinder said...

Gee, so much worry about a couple hundred errant $250 checks. So little worry about the mega billions in missing cash in Iraq.