Stimulus Check?

First, let me start by saying that my understanding of what this whole ‘Stimulus Check’ thing is supposed to do, is to stimulate the economy by giving about 130 million people and families a portion of the total 170 billion dollar amount set aside for the stimulus.  I guess that somehow it will help our economy by giving all these people money to go out and spend.

I received my notice a few weeks back saying mine was on the way, great.  Today I got a letter saying that it was applied to some back taxes I owed.  So much for any ’stimulus’ on my part.  I have a problem with that considering the whole income tax thing being ‘voluntary’ in the first place but I still owe them.  I won’t even delve into that can of worms because it will just piss me off.  I was a little irked when I got the notice today, but pretty much expected it considering how our government likes to pick our pockets for any and all reasons.  I did however, do a little thinking about the topic.

I started wondering how many other people ‘owed’ back taxes.  There are millions of people that owe back taxes.  I am sure that just like me, their ’stimulus’ checks got stimulated right back into the IRS’s account.

My limited understanding of economics tells me that when ever you inject lots of new money into an economy, it makes inflation go up because, now there are more dollars in circulation and they are worth less now.  Did our wise and esteemed leaders forget this or did they not worry about it because they knew that with the millions of American’s who owed back taxes, a significant portion of the money they ‘gave’ to us would come right back to them?

The whole thing stinks of some kind of shenanigans being played on U.S. citizens.  In reality the paltry amounts given to people, on an individual basis, is not really that much.  They may be able to pay off some debt or fill the gas tank, but in the larger context of the world we currently live in, it’s a drop in the barrel.  I would really love to see the numbers on what amount of the 170 billion dollars that was given out, came right back to the IRS because the recipients owed taxes.

So, the question is.  Who or what was this thing supposed to stimulate???  Certainly not the economy since 170 billion dollars just shoved into circulation probably would not help our economy.  I don’t claim to be an expert by any means, but I can and do read.  If anyone would care to enlighten me on how this helps us, please let me know.