It seems that my wife and I are going to be getting $600 from the United States government. We didn't ask for it, and we don't want it. But we had over $12,000 in taxable income, so we get it.
Meanwhile, some 35 million wage-earning, tax-paying Americans will receive much less than that $600 figure.
Why? Because they earn less than $30,000.
The tax rebate for a married-filing-jointly tax filer is 5% of the first $12,000 of taxable income. To have $12,000 in taxable income -- after up to $18,500 in deductions -- you must be over $30,000 in total income. That leaves out 35 million low income Americans.
I keep reading about how people are either excited about their rebates or disappointed that they are not enough. What about those of us who are disgusted to be receiving a rebate at all? Shouldn't this money be going to fund the services that Bush is cutting?
We at the Monkeyfist Collective propose to give the money back to the people who should be getting it: the poorest Americans, who work hard and pay taxes but won't be getting a rebate.
We have assembled the following list of organizations that provide essential services -- which the government does not -- to poor Americans. We suggest that you give some portion of your rebate to one or all of them. Or choose some others. After all, as the President likes to say, it's your money, right?
