The stories of government waste are rife through both Republican and Democrat Administrations. Now we are finding examples of the dead earning more than the living!

How could the dead be making a living? Well, celebrities do it all the time, but most of us are not celebs. No, us regular folks usually make money off the government after we pass away because the government doesn’t know we’ve headed to the great beyond. Let’s take a look at some examples…

• Social Security Administration sent $18 million in stimulus funds to 71,688 dead people.

• The Department of Health and Human Services sent $3.9 million in assistance to pay heating and cooling costs for 11,000 dead people (depending on where they ended up, the post-death cooling assistance might have been welcome!).

• The Department of Agriculture sent $1.1 billion in farming subsidies to 173,000 deceased farmers.

• Medicare paid $92 million in claims for medical supplies prescribed by dead doctors and paid $8.2 million for supplies prescribed to dead patients.

Overall, this money really is a drop in the proverbial bucket. Yes, even the billion dollars. Saving this money would make absolutely no difference in the overall financial situation of the United States. Still, it is fairly frustrating and certainly something one would like to see rectified. 

I doubt it will be.