BE AWARE - THIS CHECK IS NOT A "REBATE".
DON'T JUST RUN OUT AND SPEND IT!

SOME PEOPLE WILL ACTUALLY HAVE TO GIVE IT BACK!

We know how the last tax "rebate" turned out. It ended up just being an advance on your regular tax refund and was deducted from the refund check you would have gotten anyway. Some "rebate". Detroit News article

This current check will be the same. It is not a "rebate" on past taxes, it is an advance on your Child Tax Credit for next year. Plus, just to make it a little interesting, the IRS is using your 2002 tax data to estimate your "rebate". If your finances or family situation were significantly different in 2002 compared to 2003, you may actually have to give all or a part of it back.

Here is what it actually is. The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 provides an increase in the child tax credit from $600 to $1,000 per qualifying child effective for 2003. The check is an advance payment of that $400 for each qualifying child you have (child must have been born after 1986).

Here are the potential problems you need to look out for:

- loss of a dependent - if your child is no longer a dependent in 2003, because of age, death, income, etc., the IRS may not know this and will gleefully send you a check for the $400 based on your 2002 status. But when you go to file you taxes next year...whoops. Guess who'll be sending a $400 check to whom?

- divorced couples - if you are divorced with dependent children and received a check, do not sign that check over to your ex. Your ex will not be getting a duplicate $400 check. He/she will get their child tax credit after they file their 2003 taxes. But guess who will have to still pay the $400 back to you-know-who?

So what's the deal? Why go through all this hassle and expense of sending advance checks if people are going to get the money anyway? In order to bribe..er, uh.. "stimulate the economy", Dubya wanted to get this check out to folks now, instead of making them wait a whole 6-8 months for their 2003 tax refund check.

I guess that giving people their tax refund checks a whole six months early is going to rocket the economy into recovery. Well... maybe not. But it is a good way to make people think they are getting free money just before campaign time.

But just like the old saying goes, there's no such thing as a free lunch. At a (yet another) time of record debt and deficits, the government is giving away money. Where in the world is that money going to come from? Can you say "Credit Card"?

Remember when the President and Vice President kept telling us about the enormous budget surplus we had?

"We think it’s important to take a part of that surplus that was created by the American worker and give it back to the people who earned it. If we don’t, it’ll stay in Washington and it will be spent.’’
- Vice President Dick Cheney

"You see, the growing surplus exists because taxes are too high, and government is charging more than it needs. The people of America have been overcharged, and, on their behalf, I'm here asking for a refund."
- President George W. Bush

Well, we don't have to worry about that evil surplus any more. It's gone!!! (see charts below) And yet the national debt has risen to record levels again.

But the term "surplus" was misleading anyway, and Bush and Cheney used it intentionally so. Surplus merely means that you are spending less than you are taking in. But what if you owe money? If you put all of your debt on a credit card or take a bank loan, you can stretch out the payments, making your monthly "spending" less, but your overall debt can continue to grow.

Speaking of debt, have you seen the national VISA bill, lately? The debt is over 7 x larger today than when Reagan took office in 1981. ($909 billion in 1980 vs $6.7 trillion today). It is still almost 3 x larger today than 1980 even when converted to year 2000 dollars by accounting for inflation ($2 tril in 1980 vs $6.2 tril today).

When Bush took office the national debt was over 35 x greater than the "surplus". Now there is no surplus, and the debt continues to rise.

Here are charts of the US Deficit/"Surplus" and National Debt from 1934 - 2003. The only reason we had a "surplus" in the first place was because the government had not been paying its bills. We put our entire national budget on a credit card. The money may have come from the American worker, but the "surplus" was artificially created by the government. Now that money is gone, but the debt continues to rise.

And the debt is no accident. The plan by the Republicans is to intentionally run up the debt so high that we can no longer afford any social services. However, the public has time and again told them they want those services, so there is no way they are ever going away completely. The the only thing this crazy plan will do is destroy the economy.

If you want proof, all you have to do is look at the numbers. The numbers used in these charts are directly from government sources, no finagling.

click to enlarge  Source for deficit figures - Bureau of Economic Analysis	click to enlarge  Source for debt figures - U.S. Treasury Dept.
click to enlarge  Source for unemployment figures - Bureau of Labor Statistics	click to enlarge  Source for GDP figures - Bureau of Economic Analysis

 

Hey, Dick. Don't have a heart attack, but I've got bad news. That "surplus" money had already been spent! People had not been overcharged. The government had just not been paying its bills.

So, what will you do with your Bush bribe? Well, if you disagreed with the tax cut scam, now is the time to put your "refund" where your mouth is. You can donate it to charity. Donate it to your favorite candidate to beat Bush in the next election. Donate it to any anti-Bush activity.

Or here's an idea. Donate it to Kenneth Lay. I hear he is broke, poor guy. To paraphrase the Vice President, you may as well send it to him, because if it stays in Washington it will go to Lay, and those like him, anyway.

Write your Representatives and Senators in Congress. Tell them you are against the crazy tax cut scam that only funnels money - your money - to the rich.

Project Vote Smart is an excellent non-partisan site for information on all branches of government and how to contact them.

Or go to commoncause.org to find your representatives in Congress.

(This site not affiliated in any way with Project Vote Smart or Common Cause.)