Thousands of dead people received economic stimulus payments.

Congratulations to the Social Security Administration.

The Administration has agreed, probably reluctantly and perhaps only after numerous meetings and academic research, that with respect to economic stimulus payments, prison inmates should be ineligible and the government should be able to recover economic stimulus payments made to dead people; in the future that is. Makes sense to me.

Why is this important? Because according to a congressional audit report, approximately 90,000 economic stimulus payments went to dead people or people who are in prison. Low and behold wouldn’t you know it? Dead people are ineligible to get the payments. But the report goes on to say, there is no provision in the law to recover payments incorrectly sent to dead people. Does this make you smile irreverently like me?

Do the dead people really need the money? I say we go get it. But we have been unable to go get it because the current law says the Administration can not recover payments made to dead people. Common sense now has prevailed and the Administration can now recover payments made to dead people. Thank heaven. That makes me feel a lot better, except for the fact that I keep thinking of the meeting that had to take place to consider this important issue.

Now faced with the right to recover payments made to dead people, the Administration is faced with another set of problems. Where do the dead people get their mail? What if they already spent it? Can we sue them and get it back?

Think I made this up? Senator Tom Coburn, R-Ok knows I am not. He says, "These findings are yet another example of congressional stupidity and a lack of accountability." He must be in the Senate not the congress.

The inspector general's report said that if similar stimulus payments are authorized in the future, the Social Security Administration agreed with the recommendations and they will recover all payments sent to dead people.

I am relieved. The humor is sad.