I, for one, got a surprising amount back this year. With only working about half the year (laid off in May, then temp work in December), plus filing as a 0, I got enough back to buy myself a shiny new touring bicycle and start acquiring camping/touring gear.

For some reason I was dreading filing, mostly because I thought the unemployment I had collected would screw me, and put it off until Sunday. That was dumb.

Yeah, that 47% number really messed with people's heads. It always kinda seemed like one of those cases of "A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing."

All that being said, I might humbly suggest that the some of the Tea Party be adapted into a Thanks Government Parade. I mean, after all, it seems those that turned out to, say, the event in Yakima - and others interviewed by the NYT - are proud recipients of the public dollar. So why not?

@1:

Well, normally the unemployment WOULD have screwed you, because, as a general rule people don't have federal withholding deducted from UE compensation (something I always advise people to do). In addition, this year the first $2,400 of UE was exempt from federal taxes, which has helped folks out quite a bit. And then there's the $400 per person Making Work Pay Tax Credit, which further reduced the amount of tax owed.

And for the concern trolls who will no doubt continue to jump on this as evidence of "librul freeloading welfare-cheatin' hippy scum" or whatever colorful epithets they can muster, it should be pointed out that 41% of the federal budget is devoted to Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid/CHIP, which every wage-earning citizen pays into, regardless of whether they get a 100% refund of their federal taxes.

(And, it should also be pointed out that, of the remaining 59% of the federal budget, another 21% goes to defense & international security, 11% to social safety net programs helping the truly needy, 8% to paying interest on our national debt, 6% to retirement benefits for veterans and federal employees, while the remaining 13% covers everything else.)

@3: These are good points, and rarely do they get factored in. I think because of the kind idiocy we experience here @4, it's very difficult to have an honest and informed discussion of the tax code and its faults.

Ultimately, though your points are indeed valid, it does really needs to be changed. It's overly complicated, and taxes something we ought be encouraging - production.

But rarely can we get to that conversation, one where a substantial number of informed conservatives and liberals actually agree. Because like most of the serious conversations our country must have, it seems too much frivolity and made-up information stands in the way.

@4: Ah yes, because employers get nothing from their employees. Nothing at all. How dare these lowly employees try to freeload from those they make rich!

If was an unregistered asshole, my signoff probably would be:
Posted by the rich are the biggest freeloaders of all...

@8: Good one. Here's a gold star!

Isn't he cute?

where were all this troll when president cheney said "deficits don't matter" and put iraq on a credit card?

@4 I hope whatever hag shit you out of her poison guts ends up eating dog food.