Last Thursday I put in my bank account a check with Donald Trump’s name on it…fortunately, both the teller and I wore masks to hide our shame.
I never sought, nor did my wife and I need, a virus check. Still, it came.
Now, we received a small refund on our 2018 federal taxes which IRS dutifully, electronically put in our account in April 2019. So, I was surprised when the IRS website told me that they lacked the banking information necessary to send us our money. I clicked ahead to give them that banking information…and thence learned the data I gave them ‘didn’t match’ their records. I double checked the critical routing and account numbers with our bank, then went back to the IRS site: same message.
Of course, you can’t correct what’s right.
Oh, as suggested by a FOX News post I did contact one of my members of Congress for help, leaving a message with Roy Blunt’s local office. I’m sure they must be busy since after six weeks they still haven’t called back.
The same day the check went in the bank, I heard from food pantry friends in south central Missouri. A number of their customers couldn’t buy gasoline or other necessities. Why? Well, the folks had fallen two payments behind on their credit cards, giving the card issuers a great excuse to lockdown the accounts.
You see, about eight million American families don’t have a bank account – and another 24 million have very limited connections to banks. [ https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/americans-bank-accounts-wait-federal-checks-70479341 ] That includes many of those helped by pantries, including a large number of good Missourians. Therefore, they waited to mid-May or later for their stimulus checks. Plus, Missouri’s antiquated unemployment system took several weeks to push the elephant through the python: many covered workers lost jobs in March but didn’t get benefits till late April or May.
Wait a minute, why do poor people have credit cards? Necessity. Try buying gasoline – or a Domino’s Pizza – nowadays without a credit card.
How do they get them? At great cost…A large number of vendors issue credit cards to those with bad or no credit. The cards have low limits, and, high interest rates – 35% in some cases. [ https://wallethub.com/credit-cards/bad-credit/ ] Many pantry clients lack bank accounts and access to reasonable credit.
Plus, many pantry clients often have widely variable, seasonal income. Or, they work in service jobs which disappeared by government fiat in March.
So, many of those who needed help the most due to the pandemic are among the last to get government money. Those who still had less need got their money first.
Welcome to our logic impaired times.
One other quick topic. You’ve heard the grousing about the ‘too generous’ $600 weekly unemployment bonus?
- In Missouri that $600 plus the maximum unemployment benefit ($320 a week before taxes) leaves a family substantially below the state’s median household income. [ https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/MO ]
- $600 a week is $15.00 an hour for a standard 40 hour week – the target wage most intelligent people consider a fair wage.
- The bonus money disappears in July – even for folks who are still unemployed.
Time to go. I need to write donation checks to get that unneeded, tainted money out of my account.
Glenn