"Helping Boost the Economy???"

     Earlier today I read a very puzzling, scary, and I might even call it somewhat of an amusing article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  The story was written by Stephen Ohlemacher.  It tells of how 72,000 dead people were sent stimulus payments.  These were issued by the Social Security Administration as part of the Recovery Act to help boost the economy and bring our country out of the recession.  These payments totalled $18 million.
     Another $4.3 million in payments were sent to 17,000 prison inmates.  These $250 vouchers totalled $13 billion which went out to 52 million people who either receive Social Security or Supplemental Security Income.  S.S. spokesman Mark Lassiter reported that the majority of those inaccurate payments were recovered.  Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma stated that the SSA lost $22.3 million in American tax dollars.
     As I mentioned earlier, this is a very puzzling story that caught my eye.  I can sort of understand that the SSA probably doesn't receive immediate updates on deaths around the country.  Even if they would send out notices that would have to be returned, it is likely that many people throughout the country would die before those checks got into their hands.  In regards to the inmates, they were not in prison at the time they were approved for the bonus payments.  Once again for future years, some kind of process to help eliminate such a large number of inaccurate payments needs to be put into place by the SSA.