In the movie “The Sixth Sense,” a young Haley Joel Osment is surrounded by ghosts. He says, “I see dead people.” I haven’t seen Haley Joel in the movies these days (although my daughter tells me his sister has a role in “Hannah Montana”).
It’s possible that he now works for the Social Security Administration. This week, they admitted they have sent stimulus checks to dead people! As a part of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinstatement Act, most people who get social security are entitled to a check.
But it appears more than a handful of dead people got a handout. Maybe 10,000. Maybe more. And some were given to people who were never even part of the system.
Antonietta Santopadre got a check. But it wasn’t for her. It was for her father who died 34 years ago. And he lived in Italy most of his life.
James Hagner got one. He’s 82 years old. But the check was made out to his mother Rose, who died in 1967!
This is all very comical, until you find out each check is for $250. Times 10,000. Or more.
And these are supposed to be stimulus checks, designed to get the economy going!
Social Security says it relies on families, hospitals, funeral homes and the Post Office to keep them apprised of who dies. And they point out that they had to cut 52 million stimulus checks, and were pressured to get them out by June.
But the last time I checked, that’s what they do at the SSA. They cut checks. Every day. So of course, you have to wonder what’s happening on a regular basis.
The old joke in politics is that many an election has been won when the late vote from the cemetery came in.
In Houston it’s no joke! A group called Texas Watchdog says some 4,000 people on the voter registration rolls were dead. But many managed to make the trip from the cemetery to the election booth, and cast a ballot.
Voter fraud has prompted a movement to demand voter photo ID.
Imagine the scene: Polltaker: “I-D please. … Hey fella, you’re lookin’ a little dead!”
So don’t just blame the SSA. Dead people are popping up all over.
I’m feeling a movie out of this one: “Dawn of the Dead: Rise of Refund Check.”
