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Entry bubble The American Recovery and Investment Act and You

By: Jake | February 23, 2009 | Category: Money

MoneyPresident Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law last Tuesday and shortly after he signed it the National Contact Center had people calling and emailing about getting a check because of the new law.

The law the President signed last week doesn't give anyone a stimulus payment or tax rebate check and it probably won't affect your 2008 income tax return. Even before the law was passed some people were already eligible for more 2008 stimulus payment money, specifically those who made less income in 2008 than in 2007. If this is your circumstance, you should check to see if you are eligible for the Recovery Rebate Credit.

About $288 billion of the $787 billion from the new law will be for tax relief. According to the Internal Revenue Service, there are two tax provisions in the law that could bring you some extra cash this year.

The "Making Work Pay" tax credit will give a refundable tax credit to individuals with an adjusted gross income up to $75,000 or $150,000 for married couples filing jointly. The credit will be applied to paychecks with tax withholdings, and you can calculate the amount for you here. Some people who receive benefits from the Social Security Administration, Veteran's Affairs and Railroad Retirement Board will receive an Economic Recovery Payment from the agency that grants their benefits.

Recovery.gov is where you can find out about where the other $499 billion will go. The White House has created a website to get your feedback on the law. What do you think of it? 

| Post a Comment | View Comments [4] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: economic_stimulus_payments   jake   rebate_check  

Comments (4):

blue comment bubble Posted by what about the ssa/odar workers? on February 24, 2009 at 09:14 AM EST

Last week, it was brought to my attention that ODAR announced 28 vacancies for the position of Paralegal Specialist (Case Manager) GS-0950 - 07/09, for the National Hearing Center in Falls Church, VA. In connection therewith, I obtained the GS-09 position description for this position that was created in December, 2008, and certified on January 6, 2009, by Tina Williams, Human Resources Specialist. I must note that this position description essentially redefines the Case Technician and Senior Case Technician duties and responsibilities, and that ODAR combined the duties and responsibilities and created a Paralegal Specialist GS-09 Case Manager position. I am somewhat shocked as to how the CT/SCT duties and responsibilities for the National Hearing Center could be classified as a career ladder GS-07/09 and that the same basic type of position in the hearing office be retained at a GS-06/07/08 career ladder. In fact, it would appear employees in the hearing offices are being treated as second class employees just because they do not work at ODAR Headquarters at the National Hearing Center.
I respectfully request a detailed explanation as to why the CT and SCT positions in hearing offices should not be upgraded to a career ladder GS-07/09 based on essentially the same duties, noting that employees in these positions have been stagnated for many years and have been the most dedicated and hard working employees in making the Agency meet its goals, and deserve recognition by at least a one grade promotion.

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blue comment bubble Posted by what about the ssa/odar workers? on February 24, 2009 at 09:15 AM EST

Last week, the Baltimore Sun indicated that Commissioner Astrue enjoyed working with this Agency and looked forward to serving President Obama. I presume you do as well. I have enjoyed my more than 50 years working for this Agency, especially representing employees. The article further indicated that Commissioner Astrue stated $500,000,000 in stimulus funds received would go to reducing the huge backlog and processing disability cases by hiring up to 6,000 employees. I note the Commissioner sent a broadcast to all employees regarding the economic stimulus bill and stated he would be hiring up to 6,000 employees before the end of this fiscal year. As you should be aware, I believe our employees are the most dedicated and hardest working employees in the Agency and have put forth outstanding efforts over the years to decrease the disability backlog. During the past 4 years, there have been essentially no promotions for these employees and the Senior Case Technicians have been stagnated in their grade for over 20 years.
I respectfully request that you, as the Deputy Commissioner for ODAR, provide promotional opportunities to the Senior Case Technicians to become Paralegals and/or other higher-graded positions rather than continue to hire attorneys externally as decision writers. During the past 4 years, most promotions have been lost due to the Agency's actions to hire externally rather than promoting within. I submit that you should concentrate on providing promotional opportunities to our employees, many of whom may be retiring within the next 10 years. Such promotions would clearly enhance their retirement pension and they will continue to demonstrate their outstanding efforts, noting you care.
As you promote internally as many employees as you can, their vacant positions could be back filled by external hires, thereby providing a win-win for everyone, especially the American public we serve.
I have been requested by numerous employees to ask you what types of jobs you intend to fill, the locations of the jobs, and the number of such positions for each hearing office. I believe such request would include your intent for internal promotions and external hires for each hearing office.
As I stated at the beginning of this e-mail, the Commissioner indicated he was looking forward to serving President Obama and I presume you are too, but more importantly, we must serve the American public in their time of desperate need and show the respect and justice for our own employees. I think that you, the Commissioner and I should be able to work together towards this end and ensure that our disability backlog has a chance to be decreased in rapid speed.

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blue comment bubble Posted by Pam on February 24, 2009 at 10:54 AM EST

Thank you for all the valuable information your blog provides daily. I really look forward to receiving them. I'd definitely like to send The White House my feedback on this law. However, I don't want to waste my time composing this if it's going to go in a black hole and no one will read or respond. Do you know if these in fact are being read and if I can expect a response? Thanks again for all your tremendous efforts.

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blue comment bubble Posted by Jake on February 26, 2009 at 02:47 PM EST

Pam,

I understand where you are coming from. I checked with some people that I know who are working on Recovery.gov and they said the comments are being read and it's their goal to be able to respond to them in the future. So if you send a comment, it will be read-it's not going into a black hole.

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