How Will You Spend Your Tax Rebate

This article, http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080125/NEWS14/80..., in the Blade pricked my interest. I wondered how others felt about how they would spend their rebate. The government hopes that we'll "jumpstart" ourselves out of a "recession" while each individual hopes s/he won't be destroyed by a slowing economy.

I have debt from the purchase of a car (after I was rear-ended, and the insurance didn't cover the cost of replacing the vehicle), credit card debt, and a line-of-credit loan to pay for a new roof. I can handle the debt (I have a regular "cash flow" from my pension), but there are no guarantees. Let's face it: I am a drain on the government's resources, and it would be tempting to toss me out of the "life-boat" so that more "productive" members of society can keep this economy going. After all, I don't contribute much to Wal-Mart's "bottom line".

Mine will be going to the outrageous bills I will receive from the record profiting Columbia Gas and First Energy for the next two months. I hear the CEO's of these two companies need to update their kitchen counters from Corian to Marble.

So far about 75% of us will either pay off debt or put the "rebate" into savings. Let's see if I can get this clearly. We will be getting a "tax rebate" to spend (hopefully) to boost the economy which most of us won't do because we no longer trust the "economy". We have a government that has paid for a costly war through bonds sold to foreign owners or borrowing against future revenue. How long can we continue with this trend. Can we do this for the next 10, or 20, or 30 years needed to win the "War on Terror?" I am in a better position than most. I have my house paid off, and don't intend to buy another. I have a federal pension of about $30,000 a year that seems doable at this time. At some point in the future I will probably have to go into a nursing home. This will be the most expensive time of my life. Hopefully, I will die before I outlive my assets. If I look at the future with less than rose-colored glasses is this because I am a foolish pessimist, or that I see the reality more clearly than the present political generation?

Like others on this poll, I voted that I would use the money to pay down debt I have.

I am not an economist... so excuse my ignorance... but how will this money, being used to pay off debt, jumpstart the economy? Wouldn't the economy take off only if the money is spent on new products instead of debt from products purchased some time ago?

Our federal government continues to collect taxes as it is now doing, but on May 30th of each year a “rebate” of 75-80% of the taxes collected is returned to the tax payers. This would allow the tax payers to invest the money as they desire while at the same time the government is meeting its legal obligations to fund programs. The short-fall would be made up from bonds funded by Saudi Arabia, and other oil-producing nations. The 20-20% that the government didn’t return to tax payers as “rebates” would be used to fund “interest” on the bonds. Every 10-15 years when the bonds mature we could renege on the principal. And then we could start the cycle again for those trusting fools who were willing to “invest” in U.S. treasury bonds.