Reject the Rebate
by Jessica Chapel

Here comes the tax rebate.

During the last weeks of July, the IRS began mailing 92 million "2001 advance payment" checks to American taxpayers in amounts up to $300 (for those filing single) and $600 (for those filing jointly), with the Bush administration publicly hoping that everyone uses this windfall to perk up the economy.

White House staff hit the Sunday morning talk show circuit last weekend, telling America what they planned to buy. Bush adviser Karl Rove announced that he and his wife intend to splurge on home furnishings, school clothes, and something for the dog.

Good for the Rove family. The dog will appreciate the treat, the kids will appreciate the clothes. But before we all head to the mall or the bank — or Wal-Mart, which says it will gladly cash tax rebate checks in its stores — all of us liberals who shook our heads and frowned at the folly of the Bush tax cut need to ask ourselves what it means to accept this rebate.

The rebate was not included in the $1.6 trillion package, which reduced the top tax rates and repealed the marriage penalty and estate tax, that President Bush sent to Congress in March. The idea came from Democrats, who initially proposed the rebate as a more progressive and immediate way to return money to taxpayers and forced its addition to the Bush bill. Republicans resisted.

Now the Republicans have changed their minds. President Bush, in comments made from Genoa, Italy, where he was attending the G-8 summit, remarked, "I said the federal government was overcharging them [American taxpayers], and on your behalf I demanded a refund." The GOP has since been busy holding regional news conferences on the rebate and distributing bumper stickers that read "Thank me for your refund. I voted for Bush."

Why is Bush taking credit for the rebate, and why are Republicans suddenly so happy to claim it? Because it's a pay-off. In the words of Republican pollster Linda DiVall, "The checks going out are going to mean that people understand the president has honored his pledge to taxpayers." And while Democrats can try to make political hay of the 32 million taxpayers who won't be receiving rebates and the long-term effects of the tax cut plan, "it is hard to argue with people who have $300 or $600 in their pocket."

The Bush administration and the GOP have come to believe that the taxpayers who get the rebate will feel so much goodwill for the party, or be distracted enough by shopping, that they will cheerfully overlook a few details — like the shrinking projected budget surplus, or the loss of $1.8 trillion in revenue in the next nine years requiring significantly pared back government expenditures (unless monies meant for the Social Security and Medicare funds are diverted to the general budget). Or that the rich, not the working or middle class, will see the most tax savings as the new top tax rates are introduced and the estate tax disappears.

And when all those changes are implemented and money grows tight — when funds for highways and Head Start are cut, when programs for subsidized housing and higher education funding are reduced again and again — we will have no one to blame. The rebate implicates every taxpayer who receives a check in the budget slashing and wealth consolidating to come.

In the letter mailed a few weeks ago to prepare taxpayers for the checks, the IRS wrote, "You need to take no additional steps. Your check will be mailed to you." There is no other option, no way to opt out, no way to say to the government, "Keep the money."

In response to this forced refund, the only proper action for concerned liberals is to donate the rebate. Not to spend it, not to save it. When the check arrives, give it all away. The long-distance phone company Working Assets is offering to match donations; several websites, such as Common Dreams, lists the descriptions and contact information of progressive non-profit organizations.

Reject the rebate in the only way you can. Let Bush and his cronies know that you are not so easily beguiled, that a few hundred dollars will not buy you off. Donating your rebate won't stave off the worst effects of the tax cut, but it may remind the president and his party that some Americans care about more than the money in their pockets.

E-mail Jessica Chapel at jnc at flakmag dot com