My friend Andrew sent me this clip today. It really does ask an interesting question... how do you offer a tax rebate to people who don't pay taxes? Good start, but it doesn't go far enough so I will do it one better... why don't those who pay the majority of the taxes get a part of the rebate? Here I am, not poor but not uber-rich either, the perfect mugging victim, er, tax payer in the eyes of government (single, renter, no children, 6-figure income) and yet my current economic situation precludes me from participating in something that I am paying for! I mean, I have about 47% of my income withheld for some type of tax (and let's not go into consumption taxes, I am talking just withholdings). Personally, I think the rebate is a joke and one of the worse panderings of the political season, but what really sticks in my craw is that those of us paying in get absolutely no benefit. Zip. Zero rebate. The rebates are phased out for higher-paid people, starting at an adjusted gross income of $75,000 for a single person or $150,000 for a couple. There are no rebates for people with no children who make more than $87,000 each or $174,000 per couple. So lets go back to the cartoon... given that the noun rebate literally means to give back part of a payment, how do you give a rebate to someone who made no payment?
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