Friday, May 15, 2009

Dead men cash no checks?

Why is it most of the Obama administrations errors seem to be in the "well-meaning but clueless" category? Giving DVDs to the English Prime Minister that won't play in British DVD players. Sending VP Biden to talk about Swine Flu. And now issuing stimulus checks to the dead. Or did I miss a "Zombie Americans Act" somewhere?

Antoniette Santopadre of Valley Stream was expecting a $250 stimulus check. 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.

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