Screw the IRS and the Horse They Rode In On

 

You Must Be This Insane To Ride This Roller Coaster

I am too angry to write a coherent post tonight. We received a notice in the mail today that our entire federal refund, such as it was, had been diverted to a federal creditor to go towards the debt.

I am not denying that we owe the money. However, would it not be logical to assume that we owe this money because we do not have it to pay? We are not deadbeats. We are hard-working, patriotic Americans who have been affected terribly by the economic downturn that this country as taken in the last year. Those statistics that we read about every month about how many people are unemployed? Well my husband is one of them.

Not for lack of trying. But it’s hard to convince a tugboat company to put its boats in the water when it doesn’t have any contracts to support them. It’s that economic domino effect, and the old saying of things rolling down hill and hurting those at the bottom the most. Well, we are close to the bottom. We are hanging on to our house only because Obama forced mortgage companies to stop foreclosing temporarily.

We have a roof over our heads, which is more than many people. We can put food on the table, again, more than so many. But we have one dead Trooper, and the truck is making terrible sounds. Both cars need state inspections, and we need to get current tags on the Trooper. We have suspended all home renovations. We do not go out on the town, hang out in bars, use recreational drugs, or even try our hand at the lottery. We don’t go on wild shopping sprees, and Eamonn’s birthday dinner was the first time that we had taken the family out in over a year.

So we were really counting on this refund of our money to pay for two classes that Corey needs that will help him to be more employable as a merchant marine. Now, he will have to withdraw from the classes, and we can only hope that the school will be kind enough to refund our deposit on the classes.

Imagine what it feels like after checking the IRS website to find that they have deposited the money into our account as of March 27, only to find out today through this wonderful explanation letter that the money has been appropriated.

Some of you are probably thinking, “Why didn’t you pay the bills in the first place?” Good question, but I have a better answer: for the past year, we have been living on my disability checks, and Corey’s unemployment. That is barely enough to pay for the mortgage, my health insurance (which is almost $400 a month), groceries and gas.

We own both vehicles outright. We try to pay cash for everything that we buy. This one line of credit was with the Military Exchange. Corey opened it when he was in the reserves, and we made regular payments on it as long as we had incoming income. But because of our personal family recession, we are overdue on everything.

We were really hoping that we would be turning the corner in just a few short weeks after Corey completed his classes and joined a new union that represents many shipping companies. Now, I’m not sure what will happen.

We still have to come up with the $300 for Corey to join the union. That was going to come out of the refund money as well.

I have long argued that the IRS needs to be abolished and that a flat tax is the way to go. It would be more fair in that people with higher incomes who pay fewer taxes would be on a level playing field with the rest of us. But that is neither here nor there. The current situation is that our anticipated refund is not coming. A debt that we had planned to pay as soon as Corey was working regularly again has gotten the funds that we needed to help Corey get a job.

I am so tired of this merry-go-round that I think that I am going to lose the little bit of sanity that I have left. And I feel so bad that Corey is facing yet another major disappointment, this after I assured him to believe that things were turning around for us.

Someone please tell me why . . . why is this happening to us, to other people, to people who have never hurt anyone, who just try to do the right thing? Too many peopleare falling by the wayside. Too many people are becoming statistics. Too many people are losing the little bit of hope that they had when they voted into office an ethical man of intelligence who seems to care about all Americans, not just the rich ones who pay $500 for a fundraising dinner.

I’m losing hope.

I didn’t think that it was possible for me to become more cynical, but the IRS took care of that feat today. Congratulations. As Sting once said: “I’m so happy . . . I can’t stop crying.”

Yeah. Right. Whatever.

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