In September, five men were sentenced to between 40 and 98 months in prison for cashing checks tied to fraudulent Puerto Rican tax returns.

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To enable the Railroad Retirement Board to terminate annuity if annuitant is deceased, to detect fraud in cashing checks by others, to appoint representative payees.

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Members of Congress are very good at cashing checks.

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About one-in-five people use these kinds of mechanisms to finance everything from buying a house to cashing their checks.

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More companies will hire, people will look for jobs again instead of cashing in their unemployment checks, and perhaps banks will start lending again.

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"You are getting the very best exchange rate when you use the credit card as opposed to cashing traveler's checks or cash, " he said.

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Selling bonds to pay for a dividend is akin to cashing one of those credit card checks sent in the mail so you can have an expensive night out on the town.

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And the tax system is still subsidizing the donors writing the checks and the universities that are cashing them.

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