Finally: US House Passes Bill to Deprive Nazis of Taxpayer Dollars, 420-0

Daniel Doherty | December 03, 2014 1:45 PM

Who says members of Congress can’t come together and Get Things Done?

In truth, we saw this legislation in the works months ago. We noted in October how legislation would soon be introduced to close perhaps one of the grossest and most disgraceful taxpayer loopholes in modern American history. For decades, some of Hitler’s closest acolytes were receiving Social Security checks from Uncle Sam in exchange for agreeing to flee the country voluntarily. Only now, however, has Congress seen fit to remedy the situation:

Almost 70 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, the concentration camp set up by the Germans to exterminate Jewish prisoners, there are still a handful of Nazis who continue to receive U.S. Social Security benefits.

The House unanimously passed a bill -- dubbed the "No Social Security for Nazis Act" -- on Tuesday that would cut off those benefits.

Texas Republican Rep. Sam Johnson, a decorated Air Force veteran who was a prisoner of war for seven years during the Vietnam War, was the lead sponsor of the legislation.

"While the number of Nazis receiving Social Security is few, allowing payments to continue is an insult to those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis," Johnson said.

Indeed. The Jewish Federations of North America, for its part, really puts the injustice of subsidizing Nazis into perspective (via The Hill):

In a statement, the Jewish Federations of North America, which advocated for the legislation, urged the Senate to clear newly-passed legislation to the president.

"There are more than 100,000 Holocaust survivors living in the U.S., many of whom struggle to afford basic needs and services. The Holocaust survivors – not their persecutors – need and deserve the support of the U.S. government," said William Daroff, senior vice president for public policy and director of the Washington office for Jewish Federations.