$600 for $42 million

What's worse than having to endure government flakery? Having to pay for it.

Like millions of Americans, I got a happy note in the mail from the IRS the other day. Who knew that could happen? it was the notice telling me that I was going to get a bribe, er rebate check in the mail shortly (though not in time enough to pay my tax bill next month). After the relief of not reading an audit notice, I started to get a little annoyed.Doesn't everyone whose head is not in the sand know there's a rebate? What exactly what was the point of this mailed note other than pure flakery? What's worse, this lRS letter campaign cost $42 million to mail.

The tax rebate was already a tremendously obvious PR stunt to momentarily make us forget that the Iraq war lumbers into its fifth year, gas prices are rising, the housing market is crumbling and so is the individual wealth of millions of working people, the nation's wealth is disproportionately going to the ultra rich, who are getting richer by laying off hardworking employees, and all our social safety nets have been rendered virtually worthless by decades of republicrats who have put the U.S. on the track toward third-world status. And the country has to finance this $169 billion economic package, of which these $600 bribes are part, making the final cost much, much larger. And this added, unnecessary cost of trying to spin the American people makes it offensive.

This is not to say I won't cash my check and spend it on some crap I don't need, and which was probably made in China or Mexico or Indonesia. I just wish that someone in DC would suddenly wake up and and say "hey, this is a bad idea. Let's stop the madness."