This story originally broadcast on Marketplace. Quotes in this story include narrative editing.
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By now I'm sure most citizens of the United States who file a tax return have received the notice letter about the "economic stimulus" tax rebate. You file your tax return, and you get anywhere from $300-1200 back from the IRS in July.
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Well.. it seems that Bushco is determined to make you spend that money on "stuff" instead of paying off your overdue debt!
"We get this thing in the mail. It's addressed from the IRS. I had no idea what it was," says Gordon Atkinson, a homeowner whose mortage payments have fallen behind as a result of the subprime crisis.
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His wife, Stacey, quips "It's an air conditioner." "A General Electric Zoneline air conditioner," Gordon adds.
That's right. Instead of sending the promised rebate checks to all tax filers, those who meet certain criteria will receive "stuff".
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Armed with a huge IRS database, Beverly Jaworsky and others like her have spent the last few months identifying taxpayers who'd be most likely to use their rebate checks to pay off debt. "Instead of receiving that check that they were going to receive, we send it to them in the form of retail goods, in relative value to what their check would have been," says Jaworsky. That's why a couple in the Arizona desert might get an air conditioner. Someone in Boston might get a snowblower.
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I couldn't even begin to believe that the Bush Administration would stoop so low as to pull off such a double-handed stunt, preying on the desperation of the American people like this. However since former Labor Secretary Robert Reich knows about this and was able to comment, it's unfortunately got to be true.
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"It's too little, too late. Also, the government is not terribly good at knowing what individual people want, even in the same neighborhood. I mean, my neighbor might want, say, Viagra, but if the government ships a toaster oven to my neighbor and ships Viagra to me -- and by the say, I don't use Viagra -- that's not going to be terribly efficient; I would much rather get the toaster oven. Now, I suppose my neighbor and I could barter, but then I would have to know exactly what the government shipped my neighbors and it would be difficult for us to get together and know that fact."
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The story also mentions the fact that this also would cost the Federal Government MILLIONS in extra shipping costs, whereas the cost of a Pre-Sorted First Class mailing is only 41 cents.
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Audio link to this broadcast
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