Government Handouts to Murderers and Rapists

There's really no much commentary needed for this story. President Obama's so-called stimulus proposals was designed to shovel money out the door in hopes that consumers would somehow jumpstart the economy. The Boston Herald reports that the politicians in Washington were so anxious to buy votes...oops, I mean to "stimulate" consumer spending...that they even sent a couple of thousand checks to criminals:

One day after the Herald reported some surprised Bay State inmates - including murderers and rapists - were cashing in $250 stimulus checks, federal officials revealed the same behind-bars bonus was mailed to nearly 4,000 cons nationwide. …It’s all part of the massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - and what is becoming an accounting nightmare for red-faced feds. …Nationally, about 2,200 inmates who were mailed checks are entitled to the payments because they were not in prison and lawfully collecting Social Security at some point between November 2008 and January, Richardson said. The federal goverment is examining whether the payment was due to the remaining 1,700 inmates because they were not identified as prisoners in the Social Security system, Richardson said.