"You Can't Make It Up; Well, You Can, But It's Not As Good"

In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, they said,

“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

Today, I say,

“When the facts become legendary, print the facts.”

I read this in the paper, and felt compelled to pass it along.

Friday, October 8, 2010

WASHINGTON – More than 89,000 stimulus payments of $250 each went to people who were either dead or in prison, a government investigator says in a new report.

The payments, which were part of last year’s economic recovery package, were meant to increase consumer spending to help stimulate the economy.

But about $18 million went to nearly 72,000 people who were dead, according to the report by the Social Security Administration’s inspector general.

(FURTHER DOWN THE STORY)

People were eligible for payments if they were getting benefits during any one of the three months before the law was passed in February 2009.

Dead people were ineligible. But, the report says, there is no provision in the law to recover payments sent to dead people.

The report says that if similar payments are authorized in the future…the government should be able to recover payments made to dead people. The Social Security Administration agreed.

Hey, Government,

You can let ‘em scam yuh.

You can let ‘em lobby you to pieces.

They can keep you from getting it, through loopholes and special interest exemptions.

You can lose some of it.

But yuh duzzn’t have to give it dead people.