Listen Live

So about that “vote by mail” thing…

In yet another emotionally-stirring and grand achievement in American politics, the Federal government sent more than a million stimulus payments totaling nearly $1.4 billion went to dead people after the Treasury Department and IRS. And here’s the most egregious part: they did it on purpose!!

The information came to light after The Government Accountability Office investigated how the nearly $3 trillion stimulus package was administered.

Casual Observation: Not well, apparently.

Here’s The Background on How This Mess Was Allowed to Occur:

The CARES Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Trump at the end of March, provided $1,200 to adults and $500 for children to help boost the economy that the government intentionally destroyed in a gross overreaction to the threat of coronavirus. Payments were distributed based on either a 2018 or 2019 tax return, and total payments added up to $269 billion.

The IRS typically uses third-party data such as death records maintained by the Social Security Administration to prevent fraudulent tax refund claims; however, the Treasury and IRS “did not use the death records to stop payments to deceased individuals for the first three batches of payments because of the legal interpretation under which IRS was operating.”

IRS counsel “determined that IRS did not have the legal authority to deny payments to those who filed a return for 2019, even if they were deceased at the time of payment.” It also advised “discretion” provided for in the CARES Act (which authorized the payments) to apply the same set of rules to those who filed a 2018 return but not one in 2019.

Summary for Simpletons: The government’s legal counsel decided that it didn’t have the legal authority to deny payments to people who died after filing their 2018 and 2019 returns.

Logic for Lunatics in D.C. with Licenses to Practice Law: Just many dead people were you counting on suing the Federal government for denying them their legal right to a stimulus check? I’m just asking because I think we could have settled those claims for less than $1.4 billion.

The Chicks have more in the clip below.

https://omny.fm/shows/chicks-on-the-right/lots-of-dead-people-got-stimulus-checks

 (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/POOL)