A US Senator Just Raised a Man From the Dead

For everyone who says Congress doesn't get anything done: A US senator just raised a Minnesota man from the dead. KMSP reports the IRS wrongly declared Adam Ronning dead 29 years ago when he was just 4 years old. Despite this, Ronning continued to pay taxes every year as an adult. But because the government thought he was dead, he hasn't been getting his full refund—or sometimes any refund—for the past nine years. He says the government owes him about $20,000 in back tax refunds. He says he's tried for decades to get the IRS and Social Security Administration to correct the error, but they just gave him the runaround. "It's insulting, it's shocking, it's frustrating," Ronning says.

On Tuesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced she'd rectified what she calls "an absurd situation." The senator says "it doesn't get much worse" than being falsely declared dead by the government. Klobuchar says she's going to do what she can to get Ronning the money he's owed. For his part, Ronning says being officially alive is "better than winning the lottery." And he says he's got a good use for his old tax refunds, if he gets them: He's about to have his third child. CBS News reports about 9,000 Americans are wrongly declared dead and added to the government's "Death Master File" every year—an error rate of about one-third of 1%. (More IRS stories.)