Have You Been Stimulated Lately?

Well, it has been a while since anything substantially infuriating, or ridiculous, has happened to me. But, as always, I can count on my federal government to pull a stunt that could either leave me feeling entertained or completely disturbed…it simply depends on my mood that day. Before today, the most poignant of such moments occurred just before the 2004 re-election of that dog-fucker in the Oval Office...this being the absentee ballot fiasco detailed in a previous posting.

Now, recent federal efforts seem to have instigated a flash of déjà vu. Thinking back to the 2000 election in which Schrub sealed a victory, electoral impropriety and Ralph Nader’s sabotage aside, over Al Gore with the promise to give every tax-paying American a check for $300. A friend recently pointed out to me a scenario, from her native Toronto, wherein two grocery stores battle an issue that usually requires the expense of a human resource: cart return. Both stores charge $0.25 to use a cart. However, one store gives the quarter back if you return the cart to the automated rack. The store with the refund policy does not require some unfortunate 15-year old to go out into the snow to wrestle a one-ton string of steel shopping carts, whereas the other store continues to require the services of some poor minimum wage slave. Indeed, the power of the word “refund”. All it takes to exert pastoral influence over a patronage is a quarter…their own quarter, at that. She makes a great point in suggesting that Bush paid way too much for those votes. I’d be curious to see liquor and tobacco profits in the second and third quarters of 2001, I know I bought a few extra rounds after I got my check.

So, being overseas now, I generally don’t receive unexpected mail that I haven’t initiated. The other day, my lovely brings to me a letter from the US Department of Treasury. Apparently, I am a deserving recipient of the Economic Stimulus 2008 legislation passed earlier this year…White House initiated and Congressionally (Democratic majority, mind you) approved. Yes, another check for $300! Bartender!

The beauty of receiving such an absurd waste of public funding doesn’t stop with the fact that this “Economic Stimulus” was received in Indonesia. Being a teacher means I really make squat in terms of income and, with my bona fide residence existence overseas, fall well under the $84,000 mark before I have to pay any taxes. I did file a return, but was not required to pay any taxes for 2007. The beauty of the situation is that the legislation is written such that the “stimulus” was worded to be a tax rebate. As anyone who’s ever paid too much for a computer at Best Buy knows, you actually have to pay something to receive a rebate. I love it! I don’t pay taxes, and I get money sent to me, in an effort to help stimulate the US economy, in a developing country.