Posted on 08/26/2009 6:55:05 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
One day after the Herald reported some surprised Bay State inmates - including murderers and rapists - were cashing in $250 stimulus checks, federal officials revealed the same behind-bars bonus was mailed to nearly 4,000 cons nationwide.
A federal watchdog is now probing how the cons were cut the checks. The same cash also may have been sent to fugitive felons, people kicked out of the country and even individuals now deceased.
It’s all part of the massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - and what is becoming an accounting nightmare for red-faced feds.
“President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus bill has done more to help convicted criminals than it has to actually boost our economy and create jobs,” said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Sara Sendek.
The Inspector General of Social Security is now tracing the checks that were mailed to 3,900 prisoners at a cost of nearly $1 million after yesterday’s report in the Herald.
Social Security Administration spokesman Stephen Richardson said yesterday none of the prisoner recipients receive monthly Social Security benefits, meaning they should not qualify for a stimulus check. Such benefits are generally cut off to the incarcerated.
The IG also is investigating whether any improper payments were made to dead beneficiaries, felons on the run from the law, individuals living overseas and recipients no longer legally authorized to live in the United States, said IG spokesman George Penn.
Among the 23 inmate recipients in Massachusetts mentioned in yesterday’s Herald are a prisoner convicted of first-degree murder, three prisoners jailed for second-degree murder and five convicted rapists, according to the state Department of Correction.
Richardson said five Bay State prisoners received the payments legitimately because they were legally on Social Security in a three-month period before they went to jail.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
Unbelievable. The Zero shows loves to the cons by sending hard-earned tax dollars to prison inmates, some of them lifers.
Typical ‘rattic mentaliity.
on Pelosi.
This makes my brain want to explode!
So many people out of work. So many people losing their homes thanks to the Obama/Dem Economy.
And we send hard earned tax dollars to MURDERERS, RAPISTS, ESCAPED CONS?????
Will anybody apologize to the American people?
Will anybody be fired over this?
Will anybody be sued over this?
Will any of the money get returned????
Another day - another outrage. It just doesn’t stop.
Typical gummit-quality I.T. work. Whoever designed the software never thought about one-time payments like this.
No surprise!
My guess? ACORN vote scam lists. Fat chance Obama's "federal watchdog" is going to rat out ACORN, OBAMA, and his Czar groupies.
They're people too!
People who need people... /s
Yet another Katrine-style government fiasco. And these piggies want to run your healthcare for you.
Just another great government program. Fraud and goverment error. Nothing new here :(
I guess it’s official...
Crime does pay.
4000? But there’s only 535 of them.
Unfortunately, no one complicit in this scandal will ever be brought to justice. I’d wished those complicit in the con stimulus handouts were hanged.
Exactly right. You screw up like this in the private sector and you’re out on your bum by COB today. You screw up like this in the government and you probably get promoted. It’s the only organization that rewards mediocrity and malfeasance.
I wonder if they are related ... .
Generally ? Should be "always" cut off. Then again, lots of drug addicts get social security disability - helps 'em buy their drugs...
I don’t disagree. THAT would stop some of this fraud, abuse, and criminal misconduct....but like you say we will never see these crooks in government brought to justice.
However, like Teddy Kennedy has now discovered, there IS true justice one day.
In government, the women are on top.
All it can do is f up.
People without jobs being fed and housed by the federal government while they receive government checks-as good a definition of Democrats as I’ve ever heard.
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