Call it what it is

I usually try to stay out of politics, but some of the rhetoric about the economic stimulus/tax rebate package just drives me up the wall. The Saturday Wall Street Journal reported:

[Congressional Democrats] also discussed denying rebates to taxpayers who earn more than $85000 and offering them to those who don't pay income tax at all.

Just to be clear, they're talking about literally mailing checks to people that don't pay any income tax at all. That's not a rebate. It's taking money from people that do pay taxes and giving it to people that don't. The kindest term I can think of for that is income redistribution, but really it's just plain theft.

I understand that people with less money are more likely to turn around and spend the "rebate" than people with more money, which would provide a greater economic stimulus. Heck, it may even be a good idea in the grand scheme of things. But don't try to bullshit me by calling that a "rebate." It's not.




PS, if you're still thinking that robbing from "the rich" sounds like a good idea, you may wish to peruse these statistics. Short version -- the "over $85000" set is more than 10% of the population, and already pays over 70% of the income tax. Seems like they're being robbed plenty enough already, if you ask me.

PPS, I'm watching the Democratic debate, which is covering the same topic. All of them want to give "rebates" to people that don't actually pay income tax. Obama also wanted to limit the rebates to those who make under $75000.

OK, I gotta stop watching debates while on Blogger, but every time one of them says something about "the rich getting richer", go reread the last three bullets of this.