One Billion of Your Tax Dollars Sent to Dead People

Brian Darling / October 29, 2010

Sen.Tom Coburn (R-OK) put out a report today documenting one billion in your tax dollars given to dead people.  Zombies only exist on Halloween, yet dead people received checks from the federal government in the form of stimulus checks, aid to heat homes, housing subsidies, claims for prescription drugs, and medical supplies.

Dead people are haunting the federal government and taking money away from the living. As Coburn writes in the report, with a $1.3 trillion deficit for his year and a $13.6 trillion amassed debt as a nation, tax dollars should be put to a good use.  Coburn writes, “this means spending within our means on the living, not outside our means on the dead.”

A few highlights of the report are as follows:

• The Social Security Administration sent $18 million in Stimulus funds to 71,688 dead people, including James Hagner who received a check for $250 for his late mother who had passed away in 1967.  This is merely one example of tens of thousands of checks going out to deceased individuals to stimulate the economy. (more…)