See, conservatives are in the habit of pointing out that when you start handing out money, you start losing track of where it goes (or at least, losing the ability to defend where it goes with a straight face). Whereas the worst thing that can happen when you let people keep their own money is, they do what they want with the money they have earned themselves.

The “stimulus” is a case in point, and the Boston Herald has been asking some uncomfortable questions about where the money is going. The answer will not surprise anyone who remembers what liberalism truly empowered looks like:

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.

A federal watchdog is now probing how the cons were cut the checks. The same cash also may have been sent to fugitive felons, people kicked out of the country and even individuals now deceased.

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.

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The Inspector General of Social Security is now tracing the checks that were mailed to 3,900 prisoners at a cost of nearly $1 million after yesterday’s report in the Herald.

At least Dukakis didn’t cut Willie Horton a check.