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.
That's just great. I realize that it's difficult to keep track of who's alive in a country of a few hundred of millions of people, but you'd think they'd notice after thirty-four years.
Dead People Get Stimulus Checks
(Photo: clairity)
]]>@PunditGuy: Our health care system is awful. That's why Canadians and Italian Prime Ministers come here for their medical treatments. They're suicidal.
]]>The government got humanity to the moon. The government paid for the creation of many of the drugs you use, and made sure that others were safe. The government ensured that I can be served at a lunch counter in southern states. The government trained, equipped, fed and deployed the millions of men it took to liberate Europe in WWII.
So forget all that. I've got a question for you. Can you show me where private industry has created a well-run, efficient, successful health care program?
]]>"I paid dead people!"
]]>Even that one case really isn't that ridiculous. I mean, he died in another country, so it's possible there was a breakdown in communication. And since he moved to another country, they probably weren't expecting much from him in the way of taxes, so not it wouldn't be that suspicious not getting anything from him.
]]>@Steve Jones: Look into the "Vaccines for Children" program.
]]>Many large corporations have a clearing account for misc billings and things of the sort, including the one I work for. I cant even imagine how many times I have gotten the email "take this to bad debt". If you have millions upon millions of transactions some are bound to slip through, so no, I dont expect less of our government.
]]>Well, necrosis and gangrene aside, Mr. Santopadre, for which you are fully covered, I will have to give you a referral to the podiatrist for that ingrown toenail, and there will be a $25 copay.
]]>so this only applies to people recieving Social Security? are currently employed people going to recieve another stimulus check or are we only get the tax break/credit they take out of our paychecks?
]]>@floraposte: Especially since some of those will have just died and not really be something they could have fixed before the checks went out. The cost to get to 0 errors would be too high to be worth it.
]]>@WiglyWorm: Methinks that's kind of a bad sign, when sending out 10,000 or so checks to dead people counts as "astoundingly good." Do you think stockholders in a company would accept something like this? Why should we demand any less of our government?
And I understand your point, that on this scale, the number of errors is relatively low, percentage-wise, but perhaps that means that it's much too large of a scale.
]]>@HiPwr: Eh - I think that used to be the case, a decade or so ago, but these days it seems it doesn't really seem to matter who's in charge. They're all corrupt, and they're all imcompetent. And the bigger problem is that these days the stakes are so much higher. There's a big difference between providing crappy postal service or a frustrating DMV experience, and screwing up the health care system or a trillion dollar+ budget.
]]>@Steve Jones: Government is only untrustworthy and incompetent when the other guy's party is in charge.
]]>Bureaucrats are even less accountable than corporations and less incentivized to do well. They can't be sued either.
When somebody shows me a well-run government program on the scale of national health care or GM that actually delivers on its promises, I'll change my tune.
]]>In fact we should privatize social security.Everyone's money could go into the stock market.
]]>You're absolutely right. It would be a terrible tragedy if dead people were still receiving medical benefits. Almost as tragic as people paying premiums to PRIVATE health care companies for years and then being denied the medical care they need when they get sick. Or as tragic as people losing their jobs and their health care benefits at the same time. Or as tragic as having a privately run system that has caused the United States to perpetually pay more and get significantly less.
]]>Im alive and I still havent gotten mine!
]]>@verucalise: Oh, lemme rephrase. You had to qualify for it from November 2008-February 2009. This is also for SSI recipients, children- not just the elderly.
]]>And thus why we REALLY need to overhaul how we handle personal records in this country.
]]>According to the website, you have to be currently receiving Social Security in order to qualify for the stimulus check...
I'd be very worried about identity theft at this moment.
]]>