E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSJust in time for spooky season, a new report out from a fiscal hawk conservative has dug up some numbers that sound like a premise for the next M. Night Shyamalan film.
We pay dead people.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., released a report Friday finding that, over the last decade, the federal government has funded over $1 billion in payments to deceased individuals.
Coburn’s report -- which compiles the results of audits, studies by the Government Accountability Office, and other investigations – seeks to highlight the inefficiencies of federal bureaucracies. Naturally, it comes with a Halloween-themed twist.
Titled “Federal Programs to Die For” and featuring a full-page photo of a gloomy graveyard on the cover, the report comes after the Social Security Administration’s inspector general unearthed data showing that $18 million in stimulus checks had been mailed to those who are already pushing up daisies.
Among the offending agencies, per the report, is the Department of Health and Human Services, which sent almost $4 million in heating and cooling assistance payments to about 11,000 deceased people. Medicare and Medicaid are major culprits as well, with claims paid for prescriptions, walkers, and canes for folks who no longer, um, need them.
As of this summer, federal agencies are expected to check the Social Security Administration’s “Death Master File” before they send out checks. But those records often contain errors and are difficult to keep up to date.
Coburn’s report recommends greater oversight of that list, as well as other measures to reduce fraud and get mistakenly-distributed funds back.
“At this point in our nation’s history, it is of the utmost importance that every tax dollar spent by the government be put to good use,” it reads. "This means spending within our means on the living, not outside our means on the dead.”
Leave a Comment:
If only the REpublicans work on this when they are responsible. But know they run up the debt and waste more in ACTUAL practice:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_by_U.S._presidential_terms
Look at the history over the past forty years on the second table by year showing congressional republicans outspending equivalent democratic ones. And the graph by President is completely consistently the case of Republicans increasing the debt and spending more IN PRACTICE: http://i55.tinypic.com/e84ll1.png
Only a fool will make a decision on rhetoric, rather than by what actually happens.
Okay Senator Coburn...
Remind me again which PARTY was in charge for 8 of those 10 years?
What's that? I can't hear you? lol
It must be the lack of the Liberal Gene that makes him Anti-social.
"By matching genetic information with maps of the subjects’ social networks, the researchers were able to show that people with a specific variant of the DRD4 gene were more likely to be liberal as adults, but only if they had an active social life in adolescence."
http://universityofcalifornia.edu/sites/uchealth/2010/10/27/researchers-find-a-liberal-gene/
No wonder Republicans have a hands off policy, they can't socialize. There is medication for your problem, Take 2 liberals and call me in the morning.
"$18 million in stimulus checks mailed to those already pushing up daisies"
__________________________________________________________________
Coincidentially they will continue to vote democrat on Tuesday
Yes, Maddie, they will continue to vote for Democrats on Tuesday.
Hell, eveeryone knows even a dead guy is smarther than to vote for a bunch of 'me firsters'.
Madison, the key word is "decade" which eliminates the use of stimulus checks as part of your comment but Bush did send checks to the American people twice as "stimulus" maybe that's what you're referring to.
Let's see, 8 years under Bush, 6 years of GOPers in charge of all and not quite 4 for dems. Why didn't Senator Coburn discover this during the 6 years his party was in charge of Congress? Because he didn't want to--why waste a tidbit that might be of use against democrats.
Some of the people on this board are completely ignorant. The democrats are in power and have been since 2006. Obama sued Citibank long ago and that's when they started giving loans to unqualified buyers (during the Clinton administration). That's the beginning of the housing meltdown. Do some research...
This is typical conservative non sequitur thinking - government agencies sometimes pay out money they shouldn't = government agencies are bad and should be eliminated = the government services aren't necessary. The debate has to start with are the services needed, and who/how best to provide them? And it was clear that there was another party on the other end receiving these payments, oh my god, private businesses, health care providers!
Vote all incumbents out!
Are you going to vote against ALL incumbents?
Vote all the republicans out, they've not done a thing for nearly two years and we're paying them.
Yes! I just voted the incumbents out of my state -- I voted straight ticket Republican!!! All incumbents are Dems.
Life is good today!!
If all the incumbents are on your ticket were Democrats right down to the local elections you must be in a very liberal area.
Does your "Vote all incumbents out!" advise apply to someone in a very Republican area?
Yes, governor is a dem, senators are dems. Many people voting them out this time around! It's a wonderful thing! Our state is seeing RED now and I like it!
I'm not angry at all. I'm HOPEFUL for the end of the democratic nightmare that's been forced on my country.
Calling the current Democratic control of elected office a nightmare is your opinion and is fine by me.
I don't think you can rightly use the word "forced" to describe acting on a mandate from the democratic process.
VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!!
Out of control spending, coming back to bite the repukes in charge, who now seem to have developed amnesia.
Thanks for more voting ammunition!!!!!!!
I quess one has to die to get a check back from the government. Hmm.. no one watching the store or the cash register.. We have so many watch dog czars and we still can't figure out where the hell the money is going.. Maybe we need to hire some big deal auditors to go over our governments books to really see where all this money went. And if the bail out money was paid back,, I sure haven't seen any of that money back in my pockets... the tax payors money.... well,, no one watching the store and cash register,, so why are we surprised at dead people getting money? OH and our prisoners too.. and how many illegal aliens got some of this too? need a BIG BIG watchdog over government spending... a big dog with big teeth to bite the asses that keep writing checks without any money in the bank.
Unions got the bailout so that they could contribute to the democrats!!! Hey union, I want my money back!!! Talk about a waste!!!
Billions of dollars wastful spent on Iraq and Afghanistan war from 2003-2009.
How about these hole spendings and wh0 in charge of doing so at the beginning.
Its DZland
"... spending within our means on the living, not outside our means on the dead.” Now I get his policy toward Haiti.
Coburn. This is the guy holding up more than 1 billion dollars of aid to Haiti, while hundreds of Haitians die due to lack of sanitary facilities and clean water. Hopefully his hold on the funding will not cause further death and suffering to the Haitian population.
What amendments did the Dems (who control the agenda) attach to the bill in the name of crass opportunistic politics?
What do they get for "helping" the Haitians?
None, Richard. It was a clean bill. Coburn is just an a$$ playing politics with people's lives.
Typical douchebaggers out on this thread. I didn't see where Coburn said anything about political parties. He merely pointed out some areas of waste in these bureaucracies and you douchebaggers all jump in about Republicans, if it had been a Democrat issuing this report you would all applaud his effort. It's ok though soon the Dems will be the party of No and the Repubs on these threads get to say "we won, so get over it".
Matthew:
It's late and you won't see this, but go research the Huff N' Puff Post on this issue.
You might want to expand your news sources beyond Jon Stewart.
This is the type of stuff that gets the low-information people to vote republican. He brings it up just a few days before election day hoping that voters will blame it all on the party who is currently in charge even though it has been happening for the past 10yrs.
I also saw the article about the "liberal gene". I thought it was so funny that they discovered liberals are the ones that have friends. I always knew tea-baggers were just a bunch of angry losers who love to blame their miserable lives on anyone but themselves. Now I have proof that its true. When you read the angry comments from people like JS1, CU, and NoJo, you can tell they are society's rejects who just never have a nice thing to say about anything or anyone. They are just sad.
its doesnt surorise me that this has happen, if we would have been handling the fraud and abuse from the start of the time government took place these mistakes wouldnt happen. people like to point fingers, lets all get on board and make this nationa a better place. we can get nowhere without the help of others. this guy does a report on the money the government spends on the dead, but what about the hold up on aid to hati that this jack ass have blocked. that doesnt makle sense at all. what happen to working together. we all have herd all week that there will be "NO COMPROMISE" to work with the president i think this is a bunch of BS on the half of the repubs. i say this and i mean it. u best to believe if @!$%# aint right by 2012 the repubs can hang up the efforts to elect anopther president. thumbs up to obama and the democrats. we know that it takes more than just people passing bills to help our country. it takes courage and leadership to do more than just sit there pink asses on the sidelines. we will prosper in the next to years. believe me if its not one that the middle class know how to do , its to struggle cause we have been doing it for years now. we kepp the faith and know that there's a brighter day ahead for each of us. Move america forward
I work in the accounting department of a financial institution. Social Security payments that are sent electronically at any point after the recepient is deceased are supposed to be returned to the government. However, it often times takes weeks to discover someone is deceased, if we find out at all, as we do not get any form of notice. It also takes the government time to find this out. This information is not surprising at all, although I wonder if that 1 billion number is the gross total payouts that haven't been reclaimed or if it is the net number. Politicians from both sides like to play with numbers. Many of the stories talking about all the stimulus checks that went to the deceased and the imprisoned neglect to say how much of that money has since been recovered.
The fact is, this is not something that happens because it is the government in charge. It is something that happens because of the volume of payments involved. Private businesses also send credits/debits to the accounts of deceased customers. The human element guarantees whenever paperwork needs filing, whether it is the private or public sector, mistakes and oversights happen. It is not unique to the government.
Come on, Tim, stop being so reasonable, practical and pragmatic. You just know it has to be somebody's fault. Somehow someone from the other party just has to be blamed. Most of the posters here do not like knowing about the real world and how things actually work.
Get with the program, this is a political blog. ;-)))
I notice that the GOP QUACK whogave up a medical practice to get a 170,000 dollar Senate job vice a half million to million that a real doctor can esaily make [IF COMPETENT].Plus his discounted rent payments at the [GOP DEN] on C street
I vote for Muhamed Ali.
(Oops- I must be a muslim-lover!)
The entire world is connected one way or another via the extensive computer networks. The person that can come up with the program to instantaneously inform government agencies that a person is now deceased is going to probably be at the top of the Forbes top 10 richest people in the world....Complaycency and fingerpointing will get us no where. The issue has been identified. Work together and just fix it!!!
Perhaps Coburn is holding up paying that money until we figure out where the millions already sent to Haiti has gone!?!?! Let's determine that before we add more money to someone's pockets.
Meanwhile, cholera is spreading and killing innocent Haitians.
These right wingers could care less about the Americans here at home that are suffering... Do you really think they give a rats a@@ about some black folk on an island?
Do the 'black folk on an island' have a lot of money the right wingers could maybe convert to their own? They don't? Then, HELL no, they don't give a rats patoot about 'em.
Silly woman.
I am not a republican, but I don't give a rats A$$ about folks of any color on some island. It's not my problem they could all die horribly and it wouldn't change things for me one bit. You may say I'm lacking compassion, but honestly if I don't care about them what makes you think I give a rats A$$ what you think. I only care about myself and my family and friends the rest of you can fall off the face of the earth and I wouldn't shed a single tear. Enough of the PC bullspit in this country.
All this finger pointing again, it doesn't matter what those that are no longer in office did, they are gone, and good or bad, we live with what they did. As for Obama, he's in office now, and continuing past bad policy in any arena is not good.
this article is not about politics so much as it is the processes involved in government spending. as some others have pointed out, the sheer volume alone will be cause for mistakes, and that is what audits are for, to find problems and fix the processes. REPEAT findings are what is cause for alarm.
Police officers lose guns every day, but we still arm our police, we just find better ways to secure those weapons and better training for those responsible for them.
Don't mess with those dead people. Those are Obama supporters and make up most of his "base."
Hahahaha,,,,A REPUBLICAN talking about spending within our means by presenting evidence the Democrats "wasted" $20 million sending checks to dead folk in a study thats says nearly a BILLION was wasted over the past decade,,,,,,,How much does that leave that the Republican cabinet gave to dead folks??
Add the 4 million to the 3 trillion that Obama just spent and we have an economy!!! Every city run by democrats has finances in the toilet!!!
Now lets talk about Kallifoooornya. How prosperous are they under Schwartzenegger?
These dead people are a very important voting block for the democrats. Not to mention that people who are watching MSNBC are (brain) dead anyway. Money well spent.
Every day over 6,000 Social Security Beneficiaries die. That means if you produce a file of all of the live SSA beneficiaries, send it to Treasury, send the payments to the post office and deliver the checks, a period of around 7 days, your are going to send out 42,000 checks to deceased individuals. Since the dead can't cash their checks, almost all are returned. This is a non issue, except for people with a political agenda to push.
The checks go to old people. Old people occasionally die.
The computers sending the checks are on auto pilot. Data entry staff have to manually enter deaths, and then only after death reports perculate through the system.
NOW - How about going after any money taken by anyone other than the intended recipient.
Oops - this is no longer as easy as it was when checks were issued. Now it is mostly direct deposit. Yup - all this stray stash of cash went to the banks.