Rebates in the mail by June we hope

[orange-n-brown 365]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080124/ap_ ... y_stimulus


WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders announced a deal with the White House Thursday on an economic stimulus package that would give most tax filers refunds of $600 to $1,200, and more if they have children.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would act on the agreement — hammered out in a week of intense negotiations with Republican Leader John A. Boehner and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — "at the earliest date, so that those rebate checks will be in the mail."

President Bush praised the agreement in a statement he delivered to reporters at the White House. "This package has the right set of policies and is the right size," he said.

The rebates, which would go to about 116 million families, had appeal for both Democrats and Republicans. Pelosi's staff noted that they would include $28 billion in checks to 35 million working families who wouldn't have been helped by Bush's original proposal. Republicans, for their part, were pleased that the bulk of the rebates — more than 70 percent, according to an analysis by Congress' Joint Tax Committee — would go to individuals who pay taxes.

Individuals who pay income taxes would get up to $600, working couples $1,200 and those with children an additional $300 per child under the agreement. Workers who make at least $3,000 but don't pay taxes would get $300 rebates.

The rebates, expected to go out in June, would cost about $100 billion, aides said. The package also includes close to $50 billion in business tax cuts.

The package would allow businesses to immediately write off 50 percent of purchases of plants and other capital equipment and permit small businesses to write off additional purchases of equipment. A Republican-written provision to allow businesses suffering losses now to reclaim taxes previously paid was dropped.

Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed to drop increases in food stamp and unemployment benefits during a Wednesday meeting in exchange for gaining the rebates of at least $300 for almost everyone earning a paycheck, including those who make too little to pay income taxes.

"I can't say that I'm totally pleased with the package, but I do know that it will help stimulate the economy. But if it does not, then there will be more to come," Pelosi said.

Boehner said the agreement "was not easy for the two of us and our respective caucuses."

"You know, many Americans believe that Washington is broken," Boehner said. "But I think this agreement and I hope that this agreement will show the American people that we can fix it and will serve to move along other bipartisan agreements that we can have in the future."

Paulson said he would work with the House and Senate to enact the package as soon as possible, because "speed is of the essence."

The Treasury Department has already been talking to the IRS about getting the checks out "as quickly as possible, recognizing that the tax filing season is ongoing," said Treasury spokesman Andrew DeSouza.

The rebates would phase out gradually for individuals whose income exceeds $75,000 and couples with incomes above $150,000, aides said. Individuals with incomes up to $87,000 and couples up to $174,000 would get partial rebates. The caps are higher for those with children.

The agreement left some lawmakers in both parties with a bitter taste, complaining that their leaders had sacrificed too much in the interest of striking a deal. Many senior Democrats were particularly upset that the package omitted the unemployment extension.

"I do not understand, and cannot accept, the resistance of President Bush and Republican leaders to including an extension of unemployment benefits for those who are without work through no fault of their own," Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., the Ways and Means Committee chairman, said in a statement.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the Finance Committee Chairman, said leaving out the unemployment extension was "a mistake," as he announced plans to craft a separate stimulus package in the Senate starting next week.

Majority Leader Harry Reid said the goal is to send the package to the White House by Feb. 15 for President Bush's signature. Reid said senators would want to look at add-ons including the unemployment extension and possibly money for highway projects.

Bush has supported larger rebates of $800-$1,600, but his plan would have left out 30 million working households who earn paychecks but don't make enough to pay income tax, according to calculations by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center. An additional 19 million households would receive only partial rebates under Bush's initial proposal.

To address the mortgage crisis, the package also raises the limits on Federal Housing Administration loans and home mortgages that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can purchase to as high as $725,000 in high-cost areas. Those are considerable boosts over the current FHA limit of $362,000 and the $417,000 cap for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's loan purchases.

After a key Wednesday night meeting in which the parameters of an agreement were reached, Pelosi and Boehner spoke again Thursday to cement the accord.

In the talks, Pelosi pressed to make sure tax relief would find its way into the hands of lower-income earners while Boehner pushed to include upper middle-class couples, according to congressional aides.

The package was drawing fire from liberal activists and labor unions upset that proposals to extend unemployment insurance and boost food stamps had been dropped. Many Democratic lawmakers had assumed those proposals would make it into the package, and critics of the deal said those ideas could pump money into the economy more quickly than tax rebate checks that won't be delivered until June.

Democrats wanted to extend unemployment benefits for people whose 26 weeks of benefits have run out, but Republicans resisted.

Conservative Republicans, meanwhile, were likely to be restless over tax rebates going to those without income tax liability.

Democratic aides said greater GOP flexibility over giving relief to poor families with children — who would not have been eligible under Bush's original tax rebate proposal — was the catalyst that moved the talks forward.

[The Instructor]

I posted this on the Politics Forum already.

[ballparent]

Sounds good to me....$1200.00 in our house, I'll take it.....to the beach.

[mohawkbaseball#1]

600 sounds good to me

[ballparent]

Send a message to Washington...

...don't use the money to buy things...

...pay down your debt instead!

Oh, I will a little at least I'll use part of the tax refund to pay tax, my second half property tax. What goes around, comes around.....but the rest I'm spending at the beach.

[Frank Reagan]

Is there anything individuals need to do to get these checks or will they just come?

[The Instructor]

They just came in the mail last time.

You didn't have to do anything to get them.

[The Instructor]

I will use my $600 to pay off some debt.

I am going to rebel!!

[Rhiannon]

Sounds good to me....$1200.00 in our house, I'll take it.....to the beach.

How do you find out how much you are getting back? I need money for the beach too

[The Instructor]

Sounds good to me....$1200.00 in our house, I'll take it.....to the beach.

How do you find out how much you are getting back? I need money for the beach too

Here ya go....


Individuals who pay income taxes would get up to $600, working couples $1,200 and those with children an additional $300 per child under the agreement. Workers who make at least $3,000 but don't pay taxes would get $300 rebates.

[orange-n-brown 365]

sorry instructor didn't mean to steal your thunder I didn't see this as a political thing so I posted it here

I think if I am reading this correctly I will get $2100.00 and I will either put it towards a new heating and cooling system
or buy school clothes and put some away to pay for senior stuff in the fall

or go Christmas shopping early

[The Enforcer]

So if thats true then My Family will be recieving $1800, Yep the Beach here we come, The only hard part is desiding what Beach to go to

[Rhiannon]

Sounds good to me....$1200.00 in our house, I'll take it.....to the beach.

How do you find out how much you are getting back? I need money for the beach too

Here ya go....


Individuals who pay income taxes would get up to $600, working couples $1,200 and those with children an additional $300 per child under the agreement. Workers who make at least $3,000 but don't pay taxes would get $300 rebates.

Thanks Instructor. Just like the kids I didn't bother to read the article
So I would get $1500.

[orange-n-brown 365]

Can I make a suggestion?

This is your money, of course. However, this is the money that you would have received in the Spring of 2009 as a part of your tax refund for 2008.

I hope that you realize that this money WILL BE OFFSET against that tax refund. In other words, if I get a refund of $1800 in 6 months, but I would have received a $3,000 refund for all of 2008 -- I will only receive $1,200 in the Spring of 2009 for my 2008 refund!

Please remember that.

they have said this? I know the last time it was but it was my understanding that this was suppose to be a boost for economy not a taxing it

[someoverkill]

Tobias, I know you want folks to save the rebate, but if people actually did that, would the economy be in such sad shape? If we saved money, would we forfeit home loans? If we saved money, would the mortgage companies have to pay big commissions to head hunters to "sell" mortgages? Maybe they will take the refund and buy some of that good BEARX?!

[The Instructor]

Instead of a rebate, I would like to have payday each year when zero taxes are taken out of my paycheck.

I look at all the money the federal government takes out and think about how much I would love to have just half of it for myself.

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

If we get anything I will save mine.

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

They just came in the mail last time.

You didn't have to do anything to get them.

I was working full time the last time and did not get anything.

[The Instructor]

Hmmmmmm

Sounds like you got BUSHwhacked then!

[orange-n-brown 365]