OUR OPINIONS: 'Rebates' on backs of our children


By Jay Bookman
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 04/29/08

The economy is suffering a "slowdown," not a recession, President Bush claimed last week. And to cure that "slowdown," government "rebate" checks will start arriving in the mail this week.

That extra money —- a maximum of $600 per person and $300 per child —- is intended to boost consumer spending and confidence, and thus help pull the economy out of the doldrums.

Maybe the gesture will work, but if so the fix will only be temporary. Our nation's financial and economic problems are too profound to be cured by showering taxpayers with billions of dollars that was never ours to begin with.

Of course, such a statement is blasphemy to many conservatives. Right-wing ideology teaches that all tax cuts and rebates merely "return" money to the people who earn it. While that's an appealing notion, it's flat out wrong.

The billions of dollars arriving in our mailboxes and bank accounts between now and July is not our money; it is cash that the federal government has had borrow —- much of it from foreign lenders —- on the promise that our children and grandchildren will pay it back someday with interest.

We are literally mortgaging our nation's future, borrowing money from our children and grandchildren without their permission. That's on top of a national debt already approaching $10 trillion, not to mention trillions more they'll have to pay to sustain us in our old age because we adults have left nothing in the national bank account to cover that expense.

So when your check comes, remember to say thank you to the people who gave it to you —- the neighborhood first-grader, the smiling grandchild in that photo on your desk, and many others who have yet to take their first breath.

—- Jay Bookman, for the editorial board (jbookman@ajc.com)

Here's the problem -- Jay's not an idiot to point out that a rebate (also called a "giveaway") is on the backs of our children and grandchildren. He's an idiot for waiting until the Bush Administration gives out "stimulus rebates" to complain about it.

The earned income tax credit, the child tax credit (which I make a KILLING off of), and other "credits" are no more than the government taking money from those who earned it and giving it to those who did not.

That's true even when I DO pay an enormous amount of taxes and still get a "credit" or "rebate." Because the proper way to handle the overpayment of taxes is to stop taxing. And the proper way to handle the deficit is to stop spending and grow the economy.

But Bookman will never complain about that unless there's a political point at stake. When people who don't even PAY taxes get a "credit," Bookman is nowhere to be found.