Rob Karas, 39, of Haymarket, Va., expects to receive a tax rebate of $2,400 this spring. It’s a nice-sized amount, but don’t look to the Karas family to stimulate the economy. Karas, an information security expert, plans to invest $1,200 in retirement savings for himself and his wife. The remaining $1,200, he says, will go straight into college savings accounts for his four children, ages 1 through 11. He had considered using the money to take his family to Disney World. But “With the uncertainty of the economy,” Karas says, “right now, I’m going to forget I got that money and put it in mutual funds.”
That’s not exactly what the Bush administration wants to hear. Starting in early May, more than 130 million Americans — or at least, those who have filed a tax return by the deadline at midnight Tuesday night — will receive tax rebates ranging from $300 to $600, or $1,200 for married couples, plus $300 for each dependent child. The rebates, which represent a one-time cut in 2008 tax rates, were intended to help rescue the economy from recession by encouraging consumer spending. A similar rebate program in 2001 was widely credited with curtailing that year’s recession.
I will use the rebate to recoup what I have paid in taxes today, April 15th. I guess I am not the ideal recipient.
The economic stimulus is not supposed to be equally distributed. It is going to the larget group people who pay taxes and have suffered the largest impact or are most in danger of financial collapse from our flailing economy. That is those in the middle class That is why people making large sums of money won’t be getting it. They are less likely to take that money and flush it into the economy than a family that lives from paycheck to paycheck. That is why it called economic stimulus.
Is it wrong of me to want the government to tax us???
I just want better roads, safer bridges and more schools to counter the population growth.
Is that so wrong?
Cursor_
#32 – Is it wrong of me to want the government to tax us???
I just want better roads, safer bridges and more schools to counter the population growth.”
We already pay sales tax on gas for roads & bridges. Property tax for schools. Why do you want to pay for kids that shouldn’t be here and their parents who don’t pay. If you’re that concerned then write a check. Just don’t shove it off on me who is already over taxed.
I had some new garage doors and openers put in. Now, I just have to clean my garage so I can park my new BMW M3 in it. What little rebate I get will go for gasoline and sushi.
#32 – Cursor_
The US could have been the best country on earth if the tax money actually got invested into stuff that benefit the greater society instead of well connected corporations (such as Halliburton).
I’m buying a scooter/moped for my 2.5 mile commute to work. $800 shipped to my house and 80-100 mpg commute. The rest or most of it is getting spent overseas on a trip to Europe this summer. I don’t plan on stimulating the economy for Mr. Bush.
#35 One way to handle that. Cut off the money that the pols have to spend. I’ll write checks directly to areas that I need service from. End of problem.
#37 – pat
That will just move the corruption down one level. You need a better control of how the money gets spent.
#37 – The private controlled toll roads work well where I live. Best maintained roads around. The private school I pay for and send my kids to works well. My local taxes for fire work well. What examples do you mean?
#39–Pat==how big a check are you going to write to whom for the various branches of the military?
#40 – None. I don’t believe in a standing Army. As for the Navy, we can do what we used to do. Import taxes.
#39 – pat
Points taken. I thought you meant giving the money to lower government orgs.
#42 – pat
How about outsourcing the military to China or India? 😉
#43 – That would be the default assumption which I didn’t clarify well.
China already runs the former naval repair depot in Long Beach, CA. 😉
#13 – This country doesn’t need an infusion of cash, it needs an infusion of home economics 101…
I fail to see how learning to darn socks or make a perfect chocolate cake is going to save our nation…
…what might help is if we quit shipping manufacturing jobs overseas and quit pretending that our economy is in trouble because the poor bought too many houses. The privileged caste has feasted upon the carcass of the country so voraciously now that we’re down to the marrow. You can only export so many jobs and lay off so many workers before you run out of people who can consume the goods the Chinese make.
#45 – Like the joke re: home ec.
“…what might help is if we quit shipping manufacturing jobs overseas and quit pretending that our economy is in trouble because the poor bought too many houses.”
NAFTA, WTO suck! I say import duties to help our manufacturing base. Help replace the lowered income tax. Make companies pay for what they take from public land in the way of natural resources, etc…
#30 – So people are entitled to a comfortable life? Really? Are people entitled to a BMW? Why or why not? You are entitled to money I make? Really? Give me your wallet.
Oh Good God Pat… Are you reading Ayn Rand again or something? Cut me some fucking slack. You know damn well that isn’t what I was talking about.
#47 – Sorry, don’t read Ayn. So, what were you talking about? Most people who spout entitlement crap ARE talking about that.
I’m donating mine to a Democrat!
I fail to see how giving us money to spend on products mostly made in China will spur the economy in the U.S.? It will cause gas and food prices to rise because it will weaken the dollar even more. Anyway, it isn’t enough to buy my vote. Nice try a$$holes.
#50 Partially correct, re China. Incorrect assumption that paying less in taxes will weaken the $.
I make too much, so I get nothing. So people who pay nothing in taxes get a “rebate” of more than they paid, and people who pay a lot get nothing. Back in the day, we called that welfare.
In the meantime, my cash, which has been sitting in a bank account earning crap interest because I refused to buy into the house of cards that was inflated house prices, is now earning below inflation interest. This should be gravy time for me: Housing prices should be tumbling, and those of us who (correctly) sat on the sidelines should be able to buy at reasonable prices. INSTEAD, the Fed has dropped interest rates in order to “stimulate” the housing market, and the government is creating all kinds of givebacks to prop up the housing market. Thanks for nothing guys. I made the right call and I get to pay both ways: My money is evaporating in low interest and inflation, and housing prices aren’t dropping the way they should.
Meanwhile, all the idiots and speculators who bought houses they shouldn’t have afforded are being helped.
#52 Welcome to gov’t interference in the market place and direct access to the citizens pocketbook. Watch who you vote for. As if I needed to tell you that.
#49. “I’m donating mine to a Democrat!”
Be careful what you wish for…….
I’d rather they cut the tax rates. Eliminate the Bush Senior tax increase and the Clinton tax increase, and set the top rate back at 28%.
chrisbutts said
I’m thinking of spending mine on hookers and blow. Probably not what the Bushies expect either.
You’re a Republican Congressman?
J/P=?
#52
When Bush was elected my dollar based account was worth 1.4 million Euros. Today it is worth 260 thousand Euros.
Doesn’t that tell you something about the money management of the economy by repugs. Especially when they were given MBA’s to brag about.
So how again are the poor people stealing your money??
#56 JP – He didn’t say gay hookers and blow.
All $83 of it. Less than 50 Euro.
Although that is almost 700 Rands, do maybe I’ll go have a vacation in South Africa.
On second thought, I think that all of my whopping-HUGE rebate check will wisely go toward The Hope Tax…aka, lottery tickets, baby! 🙂
Keep the cash, George.
Roll back taxes to SANE levels…
Repeal the Fed Gas taxes…
Kick welfare cheats out, get the rest jobs…
Put proven-guilty corporate criminals behind bars…
And let the vast population of low-level drug offense inmates out of the overflowing prisons.
More importantly, strike down ALL “intent” laws…they single handedly destroy every one of our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and are the foundation for the future Police States of America.
I’ll be using mine to pay for real estate taxes in Nov.