"under review"

So I've been waiting along with everyone else* for my "economic stimulus" check--not a gift from George W. but a return on my investment as a tax-paying citizen. I wait and I wait and I wait. Then I get a letter from them with the word 'payment' stamped in HUGE red letters on the back. I think 'yippee!' and then I open it and find out that my check is "under review." Great.

I'm a single, childless, full-time employed worker with a taxable income of less than 50 grand a year. What are they reviewing? I didn't marry an alien, claim 30 dependents, change my name, file an amended return, cheat the IRS or lie to the President. I'm a tiny blip on the IRS screen. Or I was. Now my file is sitting on the dining room table of some overworked-underpaid government employee in what is essentially the "slush pile" of the IRS.

But it's okay. I stimulate the economy plenty. And why do I need money? The tuition, books, overwhelming gas payments, they basically pay themselves.


*Wait, amend that, no one is waiting anymore but me.