Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Economic Stimu-wha?

So we're all (at least I assume most who read this blog fit into the brackets identified by the government) getting an extra tax rebate this year. If I did my math correctly, it sounds like a family of four that has a gross annual income of less than $150,ooo, like mine, will get just under $2000 this May or June. The leaders of the country want us to pump this money into the economy, thus creating jobs and revenue.

Sounds great, right? But wait, where is Uncle Sam getting this money to give to us? This is a multi-billion dollar stimulus package, they say. Multi-billion dollar? Who can fathom that?

Jessica and I have discussed this and the only thing we can figure is that someone from Washington must be planning a visit to Orem, UT in which he/she will spend a week canvasing State Street visiting these places:
I'm pretty sure that between 1600 North in Orem and Center Street in Provo they could find enough of these stores to cover every family in America (no kidding people, if you want to make yourself sick sometime, drive that stretch and count 'em).

When this representative brings back his/her haul of payday loans and the IRS starts cutting checks, I imagine one member of Congress quietly asking, "Wait a minute, in a month these places are going to want us to pay them back, and look at this, the interest rate is 42.25%!" But they will be reassured by everyone else in these terms, "Look at all the money we have! Don't worry about it, we're loaded!"

And so how are you planning on spending your rebate? I'm kind of thinking of applying it to my 2008 income taxes because I sense that maybe, just maybe the IRS could want some of that back.

No comments: