The Mother Load

So, it seems back in February, the federal government took a break from handing out millions to banks and corporations that were "too big to fail" and decided to send a couple bucks to Joe Taxpayer in the form of a tax credit that lowered the amount of tax taken out of our paychecks.  Our portion of the stimulus amounted to a max of $400 a person or $800 to married couples.  Now that the economy is supposedly about to almost very nearly improve (they think, but don't quote them), the government wants its money back. You can read the story in full here.

Because of a mistake made by the IRS (Whaaa? The IRS? Make a mistake?), about 15 million Americans will have to pay back $250 or more of the stimulus money because the government didn't take into account the fact that in a tanking economy such as this, some people might work two jobs to make ends meet, or that some Social Security recipients have to work anyway, or that a majority of married couples live in dual earner families.  Overachievers!

Apparently, when someone in government figured out the problem last spring, a campaign was put in motion to raise public awareness of the problem so people would have a chance to adjust their withholdings.  I believe the slogan of the campaign was, "Fix our mistake! It's as simple as doing your taxes!"  You saw it, right?

So, basically, the government handed out money so we could "spend the economy into recovery," then realized it was too much and told everyone to adjust their withholdings so they'd get less money with each paycheck instead of more, and now wants a portion of the money back at tax time.  I call that a Win/Win/Win, don't you?

Of course, the government has to be cautious.  They can't just give us a ton of money when we were the ones who screwed things up in the first place.  Wait...

I mean, the government can't trust us with the money, since we'd all just give ourselves $1 million bonuses.  Wait...

I mean, the government has to get the money back since we didn't use it to free up credit.  Wait...

Good news, though.  The tax credit is in place again next year!  As long as you don't adjust your withholdings, you'll get back everything you had to pay back this year!  Wait...