Economic Waste NOT Stimulus

The US Congress recently approved an "economic stimulus" package whereby they borrow money to give checks to us today in the hope the economy will improve regardless of their mis-guided decision so they can be re-elected in November 2008 elections.

Now I think the economics of this "stimulus" package are completely bunk but in today's posting I will simply focus on the administrative elements involved in implementing this package:

First -- after the media reported that "checks from $300 to $1200 will be in the mail to taxpayers as a result of this economic stimulus package............" our home received a letter in early March from the Internal Revenue System (IRS) telling us to expect a check in May. Question -- why was this letter necessary and more importantly, why wasn't the "check" simply sent in early March instead of/or with this IRS letter to save both time and expense?

Second -- what is the cost of printing and mailing the millions of checks this package requires? I guess that is just an added "economic stimulus" right since someone must be paid to get this work completed?

Third -- while traveling this week I read a VERY tiny (this should have been front page news not buried in the newspaper) article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper stating that the IRS "will open 320 offices on Saturday (March 29) to help low income people , includes some retirees and veterans, get the checks they are eligible for............."

Question -- what am I missing here? These 320 offices are designed to help people that by description are already datapoints - via welfare payments/TANF, earned income tax credit (EITC), Social Security, and military records -- in the numerous government databases used to track our lives so shouldn't it be easy for the government to simply mail them a check? Yes perhaps some of them are homeless but how will they be informed as to where these 320 offices are located?

If Congress truly wants to help people like those listed above then let's see them vote to eliminate ALL taxes on Social Security benefits ( http://www.ssa.gov/history/taxationofbenefits.html )clearly that would help senior citizens pay for their heating bills and prescription drugs.

Clearly more details and better journalism are needed regarding these office expenses since my initial gut instincts tell me this is a WASTE OF TAXPAYER MONEY!!

Prove me wrong,

Todd