Geitner reminds us that the U.S. Government sends so many checks out every month it is un-imaginable. The Treasury Department is the federal governmentâs main paymaster. In fiscal 2010, it made almost 1.1 billion payments. That's about 88 million a month, with about 80 percent being direct electronic deposits into banks and the rest paper checks. The largest share (69.6 million a month in 2010) covers federal benefits, including Social Security (54.2 million), veteransâ benefits (4.1 million) and civil service retirement (2.6 million). Other big classes of payments include government vendors â from cafeteria services to car companies â that receive 1.4 million checks a month and a âmiscellaneousâ category of 2.5 million payments that finance Medicare and Medicaid payments, grants to state and local governments and payments to investors in Treasury securities. The final large category of payments is tax refunds. In 2010, they totaled about 10 million a month, though in practice theyâre bunched around the April 15 tax filing date. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...illion-checks/2011/07/11/gIQATkJi9H_blog.html