It was your/our money to begin with. That "rebate" is just political window dressing and a pat on JoeSixPack's head.
It will have lil' effect on a sliding and eroding economy and most of the WalmartNation will run out and blow it on crap, imo.

Not feeling your "pain", here. Contrived, political and of very little benefit to most consumers after the 20 min buzz
wears off.
GL,mD

__________________
Ol'UncleMotor
From the Home Base of Pro Bono Punditry
and 50 Cent Opins...

Our Mtn Scenes, Car Pics, and Road Trip Pics on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4527537...7627297418250/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4527537...7627332480833/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45275375@N00/

My X Page

And of course, the senate is going to give themselves a huge raise (again) this year. "We the People" should regulate their pay.

__________________

Isn't the "rebate" still limited: (if so, I suspect most here, like me, won't get anything)

Singles
Determine Eligibility:
If you earned less than $3,000 - unfortunately you’d get nothing.
If you earned more than $3,000 but paid no taxes, you’d get $300.
If you earned more than $3,000 and paid taxes, you get $600.
If you have children, add $300 per.
Determine Phaseout Reduction:
The phaseout levels begin at $75k and end at $87k, at a reduction of 5% per $1,000 over the lower limit. If you earn above $87k, you’re over and thus get nothing regardless of the math.


Couples
Determine Eligibility (appears to be the same as singles):
If you earned less than $3,000 - unfortunately you’d get nothing.
If you earned more than $3,000 but paid no taxes, you’d get $600.
If you earned more than $3,000 and paid taxes, you get $1,200.
If you have children, add $300 per.
Determine Phaseout Reduction:
The phaseout levels begin at $150k and end at $174, at a reduction of 5% per $1,000 over the lower limit. If you earned above $174k, you’re over and thus get nothing regardless of the math.

The entire point of the rebate is to stimulate spending and hence the economy. The more people who live with the WalmartNation mindset, the bigger the impact to the econmy. I don't disagree that this is in part just political window dressing, but if done right can be the kick the economy needs.

Even if half the population qualified for the whole amount - assume 150 million people x $1,800 = $270M

I don't see how this drop in the ocean will kick start anything.

More smoke and mirrors.........


(FWIW U.S. daily spending in Iraq for end of 2007 was over $270 million)

How can it stimulate the economy if we spend it all on Chinese made Wal-Mart crap anyway? Your service worker at Wal-Mart will still get the same paycheck; Wal-Mart will get a tiny bit more profit; and the Chinese manufacturer will be employing more people to manufacture more crap.

How about take the same amount of money for the same people and have them designate which credit card they wish the government send the money to? And if the citizen has no credit card debt, THEN, they'd get it in cash to spend on utilities, mortgage, etc...

Can we please stop buying so much overseas crap!!!?
Whoops,
Sorry.

What’s really going on here is the same old same old.

GOP filibustering
Costly add-ons
Partisan infighting
Procedural jockeying
Political pressuring
Lying to the masses

In the end it’s politicians living up to their moniker
and giving credence to the opinion of the many as
to why they should not be trusted. No wonder a lot of
people are just plain fed up with the whole lot
of them.

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache...&client=safari

__________________
"What you hear in a great jazz band is the sound of democracy. “The jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligent communication.”
Harmony happens whenever different parts get to form a whole by means of congruity, concord, symetry, consistency, conformity, correspondence, agreement, accord, unity, consonance…….

You might want to check your math

good catch, still a drop in the ocean.