Hey, how’s that porkulus working out?
It’s going to dead people:
Millions of Americans on Social Security are receiving $250 checks as part of the president’s stimulus plan — including an Anne Arundel woman who died more than 40 years ago.
The woman’s son, 83-year-old James Hagner, said he got the surprise when he checked his mailbox late last week.
“It shocked me and I laughed all at the same time,” Hagner said. “I don’t even expect to get one for myself, and I get one for my mother from 43 years ago?”
His mother, Rose, died on Memorial Day in 1967.
Social Security representatives said there is a good explanation. Of the about 52 million checks that have been mailed out, about 10,000 of those have been sent to people who are deceased.
It’s not going to the neediest areas:
The billions in transportation stimulus dollars that President Barack Obama promoted as a way to create jobs shortchange counties that need the work the most, an Associated Press analysis has found.
The AP’s review of more than 5,500 planned transportation projects nationwide is the most complete picture available of where states plan to spend the first wave of highway money. It reveals that states are planning to spend 50 percent more per person in areas with the lowest unemployment than in communities with the highest. The Transportation Department said it will attempt to replicate the AP’s analysis as it continues pressing states to dole out money fairly.
One result among many: Elk County, Pa., isn’t receiving any road money despite its 13.8 percent unemployment rate. Yet the military and college community of Riley County, Kan., with 3.4 percent unemployment, will benefit from about $56 million to build a highway, improve an intersection and restore a historic farmhouse.
The jobs estimates are shady.
And states can’t afford the administrative costs of it.
But hey, cheer up: The stimulus package is helping Americans buy…scooters!
Imagine if the reporters now blowing the whistle about the generational theft act’s shortcomings had been as vigilant about policing the White House claims before it was rammed down our throats…
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It’s one thing to mail a check to someone who died within the last couple of years- it’s quite a feat to mail a check to someone dead for over 40 years.
That’s your government at
work….uh…NOT at work.As if they would have had time to Michelle. Remember, Comgress didn’t even know what they were voting for. Only the ones who wrote the damned thing knew what was in it and I’d bet they didn’t know half of it themselves!!
At least it is getting out now just how bad “porkulus” really was. Maybe, just maybe this will continue thru the election cycle.
Hey a fella can dream, can’t he?
They had time to regurgitate all of the White House hype, but not to highlight the skepticism from many alert taxpayer orgs, conservative think tanks, etc.
Jeez, you mean the resources are being misallocated? Next you’re going to tell us that there’s huge fraud and waste. This can’t be true! When has taxpayer money ever been wasted? I mean, who saw this coming? My as-yet-unborn grandkids are going to be seeing this on their tax bill? I’ve been had!
/Oboingo voter waking up
But, what was golden about it was the excuse the IRS used for sending the check out.
They didn’t have time becuase of the June deadline to clean up their records………LMAO she died in 1967!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the question I would have is: Was someone using her SS # and maybe it showed active?? As we well know illegals use SS#’s that don’t belong to them…hmmm
Is that the name of a town?
The federal government screws up again? What a surprise.
Just thinking back quickly over my life, I can’t seem to recall when the federal government got ANYTHING right! And yet the libs continue saying that government is the answer.
Well you can’t overlook all the downstream employment that is created by cutting and mailing checks to dead people. I mean think of all the lumberjacks, paper factory workers, mail carriers and, above all, GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES mailing that one check kept employed. Think how much worse things would be if dead people weren’t getting checks!
I see dead people… – The new motto of ACORN and the Social Security Administration.
:
No it’s a county in Maryland near Baltimore
Anne Arundel is the name of a county in Maryland. For more details: http://www.aacounty.org/
Next thing you will see is a massive effort by the Government to draft notices and mail them to the dead people demanding that they send the money back immediately or face stiff fines and penalties.
Byron York has a good piece up today on the scale of this budget and general spending.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obamas-dangerous-budget-leaves-GOP-at-loss-for-words-44754742.html
We are dealing with numbers of dollars that literally are incomprehensible. They are being spent by people who cannot possibly…if they had any intention…spend them responsibly.
Of course, responsible spending is not remotely on their list of priorities. Their design is to perform the greatest money grab, transfer to favored groups, and vote-buy in the history of the world, while raising graft to a level inconceivable in our history.
In the process, our economy is being dismantled in ways that…if it stopped today…would require years or decades to repair.
I agree, Rags. You cannot spend this kind of money and accumulate this amount of debt without very, very bad consequences down the road. It simply isn’t possible. The only question is how bad will it be, and how to prepare for it on an individual basis.
Regarding the porkulus spending “disparity”, the election results don’t explain the disparity. Riley County, KS is more-or-less Republican (McCain took it 57%-41%) while Elk County, PA leans slightly Democratic (Obama took it 51%-47%). I suspect it’s a difference in the volume of the squealing from the local pols.
Government spending is like crack. It is difficult to cut back even if people wanted to.
This insanity will lead to regrettable consequences. I just wonder if there will be enough Americans left to put things back to rights after the bottom falls out…
And things like this is why I heard the story this morning that Social Security is going bankrupt because people are out of jobs and not paying into the system. Well, surprise, surprise. How can dead people pay into the system? Are we still using ACORN to find these people?
The point of the stimulus was not to improve the infrastructure of high unemployment areas. Rather, it was to EMPLOY those from high unemployment areas. The AP study doesn’t really tell us anything about the effectiveness of the stimulus.
LOL. Only a bureaucrat could use this rationale and still keep their jobs. Let’s see, you didn’t have a 43 year old record cleaned up by June and that is your excuse? Pathetic.
The Dumbing Down of America! It’s mind numbing to think these Libs are going for the ultimate power grab. Folks, stop talking about 2010 elections. Obama is moving at light speed to take control of every aspect of our lives. If we wait until the next election it will be too late.
We must fight now! Tea parties on July 4th need to have millions attend. This tax and spend party of cheats need to go down and go down fast! It’s sheer torture as Pelosi keeps changing her torture story, investigations of big Dems are being swept under the carpet and the deficit keeps climbing daily. Hey Libs! You can’t blame Bush any longer. The 2006 election had consequences, the 2008 election had major consequences. We can’t wait until 2010, it will be too late. We must act now! Call & write your congressperson now and tell them how you feel.
It’s amazing that the unions have so much power now, just think Union workers if you were able to keep those dues and contributions? You’d have more money to spend on YOUR family. Instead we have extortion at all levels of government. I read today the average salary of the people being hired by the government is over $75,000. I want a piece of that. I also heard from a government employee that hiring is happening so fast there is no room to house all the people they’ve hired and there is nothing for them to do so they are coming up with busy work for all these new hires. BUSY WORK!
Just think at this rate ACORN will be running the 2010 elections while the FEC sits back and watch their jobs saved by the dumbest group of American citizens this world as ever seen!
Hey my dogs name is scooter. TAX BREAK!!!!!
Well yes it does, but even if it didn’t, the unemployment figures do.
They are now higher than anyone predicted.
the deceased must have been those whom acorn got to vote last year.
My mom got one of those checks too. She’s not dead, but she’s also NOT on Social Security.
Why Fort Riley over Elk County, PA? Simple answer.
Joe Pitts (R) is the Congressman for Elk Co. PA and a critic of this wasteful spending plan and the 410 billion porkulus plan.
Then of course you have the Dem Governor of KS who now heads HHS.
No partisanship in handing out the candy here. Move on. /sarc
There is an organization, ACFE (Assoc. Of Cert. Fraud Examiners), to which I belong. If any part of this were being done by a private sector outfit, they would be prosecuted for fraud…CRIMINAL fraud. If a government bureaucracy were doing this, it could be subject to prosecution. But not the Congress, and not the Executive.
$2.5 million in error– that they’re aware of! Hmm. I wonder how much it would have cost to scrub the lists?
What followed the sentence above wasn’t an explanation at all. It was basically an admission of idiocy.
Yes, you are correct. But it ultimately was the politicians who didn’t listen to anyone anyway. So what if some intrepid reporter decided to blow that whistle loudly. It still wouldn’t have mattered. Congress is/was deaf except to the sound of “change”, (pocket or otherwise).
And of course, how loud will they blow that whistle now and for how long before a dead fish finds it’s way into their beds?
Yeah, it’s tough to get your brain wrapped around a trillion. A trillion dollar stack of $100 bills would be 630 MILES HIGH!
Paging Joe Biden… Paging Joe Biden.
It is Bush’s fault !
Just sending cash to the dead that Americans won’t do…
So their explanation for this lady getting a check is that 10,000 other dead people got it to? God these noobs are brain dead.
Yeah, where’s the sheriff…?!?!?!
I suspect that the checks were sent to dead people because their identities are active in some capacity somewhere.
I think a Congressional investigation is in order. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
I kill myself sometimes.
There are only 3 things govt can do, everything else is a disaster. 1. Conduct wars 2. Send out checks (and that is suspect here!) 3. Build roads. This “stimulus” program is the biggest piece of crap I’ve seen in my lifetime. Keeping the financial system from collapse, yes, I can see doing that. But this pouring money down the drain, and first printing a lot of it, at least a trillion so far, that is, well, it’s a disaster.
You’re talking about people who consider that a rounding error – as long as it’s somebody else’s money. That’s the problem with liberals. They’re always free-spenders as long as it isn’t their money they’re spending.
I don’t see any reason why dead people shouldn’t continue to receive government benefits and services. This is just another example of blatant right-wing “age-ism” and “vita-centric” discrimination that has caused so much grief in the world!
Do you people know no shame…
You’re right. If they can tax you after you’re dead, you should also have the right to a tax rebate. Perfectly reasonable.
Woah, time to get Joe B on the case. What was that website number again?
I feel better now, knowing that I’ll get my stimulus check once I’m dead.
Hey, if you can VOTE, why shouldnt you get a piece of the stimulus? Besides, I dont want to see my tax dollars wasted, plenty spent on signing up the deceased to vote.
Are dead people allowed to get married in California yet? I’m just asking…
Limiting marriage to people…
You are a rank speciesist….!!!
Not if both parties are dead. BUT, if party A or party B is alive and the other one dead, then it’s okay.
I have this vision of a little boy standing in the Social Security headquarters mailroom staring at a pallet load of outgoing checks whispering, “I see dead people.”
I said nothing about to whom or to what dead people might marry. I just wanted to know if California was as concerned about vita-normative discrimination as they were about hetero-normative discrimination…
I’m just asking…
You are so not reading the thread…
“I say dead people should be allowed to marry. If they are able to vote, then they should have the right to get married and receive the same benefits as other voters.”
Matilda Parks
Community Voting Outreach Organizer, ACORN
Los Angeles, CA
So I am now qualified to be Vice President of the United States?
SWEET!
Sorry there WarEagle. I was away for an hour and have not caught up. Love the motto!
Powerline’s John Hinderaker posted a couple of interesting charts about porkulus job creation yesterday comparing projected unemployment with porkulus to without porkulus. According to the White House, unemployment is tracking worse than what they had projected with porkulus.
Does this imply that porkulus not only failing to create jobs but is actually a job killer?
Flyoverman,
You have been qualified to be Vice President at least as far back as Fritz Mondale…
http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/05/obamas_magical_mystery_tour_of.php
THE ONE is just beginning…
How can he be stopped?
Since we’ve all been deputized to police porkulus, I’m forming a posse to round up a few of these rascals. Saddle up boys! We leave at sunrise!
Dead over forty years, getting government dollars, possibly registered to vote, SSN may be active and could be counted in the census, too.
My question is how many years have these payment sbeen going out? It makes me wonder if there is some government official who has been collecting on these type of payments for years.
Here is a great article about infrastructure projects and politicians.
Did anyone really expect the Democrats to appropriate money that may actually reduce poverty through employment and economic independence? That’s their voter base!
This is just Democrat “trickle-down theory.” It doesn’t matter how the money is spent. It doesn’t matter who spends the money. It doesn’t matter that we don’t have the money to begin with.
All that matters is that the government runs the show.
I think that is part of the speech BroBama will deliver at Arizona State University tomorrow night: Making America a Banana Republic One Step at a Time.
One small step for a Marxist, one giant leap backward for liberty…
Seems like I remember that there was some question about whether a man could marry his widow’s sister…
I am thinking that it is a GOOD thing that we are in such a hole financially. If we were not, where would Obama and his brand of fascism take us?
The federal deficit could brake the back of socialism. I don’t necessarily want to lose my social security for example, but it would be worth it for the all of us to finally realize that the government CAN NOT afford to make such promises to its citizens. It could force us to return to the original purpose of government which is to protect its citizens.
And this is the group (gubmint) some want to administer our health care? What, are you NUTS?
The rate of new jobless claims is down, the stock market is up. The TED spread is down. If you have to write a check to a dead person for this, go ahead.
Imagine if the reporters now blowing the whistle about the generational theft act’s shortcomings had been as vigilant about policing Soetoro/Obama’s constitutional eligibility claims before he was rammed down our throats…
Time for some Alice Cooper:
One thing I miss is Cold Ethyl and her skeleton kiss
We met last night making love under the refrigerator light
Ethyl Ethyl let me squeeze you in my arms
Ethyl Ethyl come and freeze me with your charms
One thing
No lie
Ethyl’s frigid as an eskimo pie
She’s cool in bed
Well she oughta be ‘cuz Ethyl’s dead
Ethyl Ethyl let me squeeze you in my arms
Ethyl Ethyl come and freeze me with your charms
Come on Cold Ethyl
Freeze me babe
One thing – it’s true
Cold Ethyl I am stuck on you
And everything is my way
Ethyl don’t have much to say
Ethyl Ethyl let me squeeze you in my arms
Ethyl Ethyl come and freeze me with your charms
Come here Cold Ethyl
What makes you so cold? Ooh so cold
Cold Ethyl
Cold Cold Ethyl
Cold Ethyl
Cold Cold Ethyl
Cold Ethyl
Cold Cold Ethyl
Cold Ethyl
Cold Cold Ethyl
If I live ’til ninety-seven
You’ll still be waiting in refrigerator heaven
‘cuz you’re cool
You’re on ice
Cold Ethyl
You’re my paradise
In Obamaland they get to vote, too…
That to secure these rights [the unalienable Rights endowed by our Creator, among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness], Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Of course, virtually none of the Obama money has actually been spent yet. Could it be that the TRILLIONS he has allocated aren’t necessary and that the normal business cycle is working through in spite of all this government insanity?
LGM
Before you start celebrating the stock market, read this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124208415028908497.html
Oh, you ain’t seen notin’ yet as far as job loss goes.
THE ONE’s drive to push capital out of the US will be yielding poisoned fruit very shortly, and for decades unless he is stopped.
CAN you really be THAT STUPID?
LGM
Just in case that article had too many words for you, I helpfully picked out the relevant paragraphs for your edification:
The troll is directionally challenged.
Today might not be as bad as yesterday, but it’s nothing to brag about.
Hey, if the dead vote they shouldn’t be denied government benefits.
Ragspierre said (#72):
In some sense this is true, I haven’t seen future job statistics. And neither have you. Like Wanda Sykes said: it takes a while for the country to recover from 8 years of mismanagement and pointless deficits (flame alert!).
If you know anything about how wealth is produced…an it is apparent you don’t…it is no trick to predict effect following cause.
Your resort to Mr. Hitchen’s “Black dyke” as an authority on economics is telling. As is your misrepresentation of history.
Both, BTW, totally expected.
Great. Now Little Gullible Moron is going to blame Obama’s deficits on Bush.
If Bush’s $500 Billion deficits were bad (and they were) how can Obama’s $1500 Billion (that’s 1.5 Trillion to LGM) deficits be “good?”
I bet ACORN will get their porkulus money in a timely manner.
Is anyone really surprised by the incompetent, inefficient showing of government on any level with the possible exception of the military, and that’s before the lawyers and congress stick their fingers in the pie?
Government corruption, waste and mismanagement are set to explode in this country in the next couple of years. How could they not when you consider:
1. The donks are the past masters of the “Culture of Corruption,” and aren’t about to reel in any of its most egregious practitioners (Dodd, Murtha, Rangel, Pelosi, Feinstein, et al).
2. We now have in place of the free market a hybrid of Corporatism coupled with Crony Capitalism that’d make any tinpot dictator envious.
3. We’ve now given the donks trillions of dollars to waste and steal instead of billions, along with a Maximum Leader who’s approach to “fiscal responsibility” is akin to pouring kerosene on a campfire.
If absolute power corrupts absolutely, it follows that printing stupefyingly huge sums of “other people’s money” to spend with no adult supervision leads to stupendous levels of inefficiency and criminality in government.
You can take that to the bank.
Regulus…
True that…in the parlance of SWAGGA…
LGM, you do know that the unemployment rate is still going up right??? I guess if you are bleeding out it is good to seal off one wound, but its a little to early to jump for joy when you still have 3 other wounds spurting away.
Seriously, you are getting your news and opinions from COMEDIANS?????????
I guess that fits with the daily show.
Of course. They blame everything on bush no matter what.
While taking no stance on the goodness or badness of either deficit, you cannot look at it in pure numbers. If you told your wife that you spent $500 on a bottle of wine, or that you spent $1,500 to fix the faulty hot water heater in your house, when do you think she would most likely be upset?
If you told your
wifeboss that you spent $500on a bottle of winean advertising campaign, or that you spent $1,500to fix the faulty hot water heater in your houseto buy a shotgun to kill your competition, when do you thinksheyour boss would most likely be upset?I think I know the answer…
Of course that is not at all what has happened but you continue to be the chief apologist for Obama and his idiot
socialistMarxist allies.The more proper analogy is between spending $500 on a bottle of wine versus spending $1500 on three cases of wine.
Or are you claiming that Obama has fixed things by promising to buy everyone wine because virtually none of this money has been spent yet…
wife, boss, same thing
Oh, and of course, you put the wine on her AlAnon credit card at 35% APR…
Especially if this dead person is Rush, hey LGM?
The point, which I fully expected you not to be able to grasp is that one’s subjective perception as to the value of what is being purchased (tax cuts, war in Iraq vs. whatever the hell was in the stimulus package) is just as important as the mere cost if you want to accuse someone of being disingenuous about deficits.
Cahp, I can see the value in repairing inferstructure. But that is not a long term solution to the job creation problem. Roads once fixed, stay fixed for years. And as you said, nobody KNOWS what the rest will be spent on.
Quite frankly, it would have been more stimulating to the economy simply to pay off 30,000 of off everyones mortgage..
In February of 2008, I saw a new client, a bright and sensitive young woman who came in looking like she just escaped a war zone. In some ways she had; she had innocently shared with others at her job that she voted for Hillary rather than Obama. Immediately she was being targeted for abuse that put her in fear for not only her job, but her life.
We both suddenly became aware that something had grown really dark in the Democratic Party. I started hearing about many other incidents where loyal Democrats were being physically and emotionally threatened for supporting Hillary. A woman in Berkeley had her front window broken because it displayed a poster of Hillary. Randi Rhodes, an Air America talk show leftist, called Hillary a f______ witch. (Rhodes was recently promoted to a national talk radio show, illustrating another disturbing trend: the deafening silence about what Rush Limbaugh has dubbed the new “thug-ocracy.)
Interesting. Some people are getting it.
What you see over and over from Obama, Nancy, Harry and company is a total inability to see the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Example, Harry Reid was so obsessed with losing in Iraq, the consequences of defeat totally escaped him. The Left from Obama to Wanda Sykes is rushing headlong to implement all of their pent up petty agendas.
They cannot see the consequences of their individual plans. They have no clue what the unintended consequences of their policies being implemented concurrently.
Our fellow posters from the left as so busy looking backward to justify the lunacy going on at the moment they do not see th path the Runaway Train Obama has created is on.
Which is why I altered your proposition to reflect the reality of the Bush vs. Obama deficits. Objectively.
Tax cuts under Bush, as we know well, were across-the-board cuts that resulted in more revenue, and, hence, no increase in the deficit.
THE ONE’s multifarious tax increases, along with other moves to push capital OUT of our economy, will result in lower revenues going to the government. Along with lower standards of living for all Americans, joblessness, and wealth formation.
Objectively.
Did you find wide-spread support here for GOP spending excesses? Of course you did not. The opposite was true, and you know it.
Objectively.
Deficit spending can be acceptable under a limited set of circumstances.
None of them are met by THE ONE’s initiatives, as is well known and documented by various non-partisan organs who have considered them.
Objectively.
Rags,
I am not going to get into an argument about the respective values of Bush’s spending versus Obama’s.
My only point was that you cannot accuse someone of being hypocritical with repsect to a position on spending unless you consider the person’s subjective (and possibly wrong) opinion of the value of what is being purchased. Simple dollar amounts do not tell the entire story.
Sorry you wasted so much effort responding to a point no one was making.
Yeah, sure.
I consider my time well-spent.
It is objectively manifestly hypocritical for Dimocrats to assail the Bush administration for excessive spending…
and then support the spending of multiples of the Bush deficits when they come to power.
There is no subjective modifier you can apply to that.
Mmmmmm…. mediocrity smells good, doesn’t it?
It doesn’t matter who the party is, if you’re a mediocre leader in economic terms (Obummer and Bush) then you will get the same results:
Needed money and resources directed at the wrong places.
No, no… it’s okay mediocrity in all aspects of America is awesome. Just tell that to the public schools and the teachers who teach their students “easy math” and the revised, PC edition of American history.
America’s in big trouble and we’re just circling the drain. If you don’t think that Europe isn’t laughing their a$$es off at Obummer (like they did Bush) you need to start paying attention.
Then, again, taxing the PRODUCERS is okay so we can pay back CHINA in the short term. Unfortunately, when those very same PRODUCERS either leave the country or stop investing in the economy, that’s makes for very bad long-term economic consequences.
I know, I know…. it’s okay to hate rich people now. Dirty, greedy bastards.
I opposed the Bush deficits and I oppose the Obama deficit. The point is that Obama blames the Bush deficits for all manner of evil and then outdoes Bush by a factor of 3 in his first few months!
Of course, you ignore the fact that those hated Bush tax cuts eventually ignited economic growth that resulted in greater federal revenues.
Then you make it sound as if the GWOT was responsible for the majority of the Bush deficits. It wasn’t but don’t left facts and numbers confuse your mantra. The cost of the Iraq and Afghan wars are somewhere between 750 billion and 850 billion over the last 7 1/2 years or approximately 115 billion a year. The dollar cost of the war pales in comparison to Obama’s 800 billion, one year “stimulus package” that will only serve to stimulate inflation…
Do you still swoon when you here Obama’s name on TV?