# I Pit the Tax "Rebate" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 27, 2008, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146 "2008-01-27T01:35:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/1 "2008-01-27T01:35:17Z")
Giving $300/$600 to people who don’t pay income taxes to start with is NOT A REBATE. It’s a handout. Welfare payment, transfer payment, redistribution, whatever, but it ain’t a rebate. Madam Speaker needs to go back to the 5th grade. ---
**Author:** ![Aioua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Aioua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aioua)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/2 "2008-01-27T01:38:21Z")
And for the people who _do_ pay income taxes? Should we call it a mostly-tax-rebate-but-in-some-cases-not-a-rebate-just-a-payout? ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/3 "2008-01-27T01:41:41Z")
What do you call it if you pay maybe $40,000 a year in Federal taxes alone, but aren’t going to get any money back at all? ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/4 "2008-01-27T01:43:19Z")
[QUOTE=Una Persson] What do you call it if you pay maybe $40,000 a year in Federal taxes alone, but aren’t going to get any money back at all? [/QUOTE] A rip-off, since it’s your money they’re giving away. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/5 "2008-01-27T01:45:56Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] It’s a handout. Welfare payment, transfer payment, redistribution, whatever, but it ain’t a rebate. [/QUOTE] We liberals prefer _Liberty Dividend_. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/6 "2008-01-27T01:49:47Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] We liberals prefer _Liberty Dividend_. [/QUOTE] How does Liberty describe the government taking money from **Unapersson** and giving it to the likes of you, or me? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/7 "2008-01-27T01:53:48Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] How does Liberty describe the government taking money from **Unapersson** and giving it to the likes of you, or me? [/QUOTE] I am certain there is as much liberty involved in the tax rebate as there is patriotism in the _Patriot Act_. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/8 "2008-01-27T01:57:41Z")
How much is this war costing per day again? ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/9 "2008-01-27T02:03:29Z")
What do either of the last two posts have to do with the tax rebate? ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/10 "2008-01-27T02:06:58Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] How does Liberty describe the government taking money from **Unapersson** and giving it to the likes of you, or me? [/QUOTE] Especially when it should go to the ultra rich and the corporations . We are breaking precedence here. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/11 "2008-01-27T02:16:36Z")
[QUOTE=gonzomax] Especially when it should go to the ultra rich and the corporations . We are breaking precedence here. [/QUOTE] No, people should be able to keep their own money to start with. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/12 "2008-01-27T02:21:45Z")
Years from now: “George Bush - the second one… you remember, the first thing he did after the election was mail everybody $300. And didn’t he do he same thing again right before he left office? Yeah, that’s what he’s remembered for, those $300 bookends.” (In his wetest dreams, that is.) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/13 "2008-01-27T02:30:05Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] What do either of the last two posts have to do with the tax rebate? [/QUOTE] The questions of wasted money and stimulating the economy. ---
**Author:** ![Oregon\_sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/14 "2008-01-27T02:44:06Z")
I laugh at the folks who bitch about giving a poor family $300 when the government hands _billions_ of dollars to big businesses which usually do not much more than cause pollution and rip us off. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/15 "2008-01-27T02:49:06Z")
I hope they vote to make the tax rebate permanent, just like Bush’s tax cuts. Send out a check every year. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/16 "2008-01-27T03:10:36Z")
[QUOTE=Oregon sunshine] I laugh at the folks who bitch about giving a poor family $300 when the government hands _billions_ of dollars to big businesses which usually do not much more than cause pollution and rip us off. [/QUOTE] Because that’s all any company does, right? There’s no such thing as competition between to lower prices, or hiring of any laborers? Look, I can see that Evil Corporations are becoming The Man of this election cycle, but the ignorant assumptions that populists throw around on economics is just staggering. ---
**Author:** ![Purgatory\_Creek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Purgatory\_Creek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purgatory_Creek)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/17 "2008-01-27T03:13:17Z")
I think we should just call it what it is–a copout. As usual, our laughable government has come up with a “solution” to our economic woes that will quiet down the people it’s most a-skeered of (poor people) without having any lasting effect on the economy. I guess we’re supposed to take these checks and spend them on some kind of iDevice or other luxury item. Fuck that. We’ll donate our very-much-resented tax rebate to the volunteer fire department, so we can deduct it on our taxes and the fire department can make up for some of the state money it no longer gets. It’s not going to do anything for the nation’s economy, but it’ll help someone out, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/18 "2008-01-27T03:14:54Z")
[QUOTE=susan] The questions of wasted money and stimulating the economy. [/QUOTE] None of which has to do with the “rebate”. Try again. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/19 "2008-01-27T03:15:23Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] No, people should be able to keep their own money to start with. [/QUOTE] Are you going to pay for your own war then? If you support the war then you already believe in confiscation of wealth. You just disagree with how it should be spent. You think it should be used to kill people (and you want to use _more_ of it). Some of us think it should be used to help people. Jesus agrees with our side, not yours. Why did you single out the Speaker for this, by the way. Bush is the one driving this train. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146/20 "2008-01-27T03:17:25Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] I hope they vote to make the tax rebate permanent, just like Bush’s tax cuts. Send out a check every year. [/QUOTE] Where is the money for those annual checks supposed to come from? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-tax-rebate/435146.md?page=2)