08 February 2008

Those Lying, Cheating Politicians Have Done It Again (Updated)

Just when you thought that President Bush and the good folks in Congress were trying to help you out...

You've all heard about the tax rebate checks we are supposed to get, right? Let's take a moment to check something out here... according to dictionary.com, the principal definition of the word rebate is: "a return of part of the original payment for some service or merchandise."

Did you catch that? A return of the original payment.

Thus, we should be getting back money we have already paid in income taxes, right? Wrong.

Instead, we are getting an advance, which is defined (in this context) as: "to supply or pay in expectation of reimbursement". Yea, that's right... just like at any payday loan shop, you will be paying it back. Don't believe me? CNN has a wonderful article on it right now (click here to read the article).

Do you want to know the worst part of this? President Bush and Congress did their very best to bamboozle the American public. Not one wisp of the fact that these were to be advances that had to be paid back next year ever entered into the public discussion (at least not that I heard) until after the bill had passed and was sent to the president.

President Bush wants me to spend the money that I'll be getting. Fat chance. My money is going into a savings account.

And people wonder why I think politicians fall in to two categories, less evil and more evil...

And no, to all my readers who will again beseech me to vote... why vote when this is the best you can get.
Update: CNN has posted a follow-up article (link) which states that we won't have to pay back anything we get, even if it exceeds the refund we will get next year. It would have been nice if that had been specified in the original article, but all this means is that a lot of people won't be getting refunds next year. So, friends, you are still paying for it on the backside, just not as harshly as it initially looked from the earlier article. I suppose we can breathe a small sigh of relief... right?

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