Thank You, Wall Street Journal

For the past couple of days I've been a little confused.

Tracking the updates on CNN, I was happy to learn the kids down in DC decided to play nice and work together to give a little spending money back to Americans in hopes of stimulating the economy. A figure of $600 was thrown around as the amount most individuals would receive. Offspring would earn 'rents an additional $300 per spawn.

The set income cap determining your ability to qualify for the rebate is what made me unsure of whether I'd have the chance to mull over paying down some debt or treating myself to a little bit of pampering.

The qualifying income cap thrown around a few times was $75K. What was a little murky was if an individual earned more than this amount whether they'd get a rebate or not. More often than not, the news sites I was reading claimed over $75K yields nada.

I come from pretty humble beginnings, so I completely emphasize and agree with issuing the checks to families earning under $75K and know what a difference the rebates would mean.

Not to pat myself on the back, but since graduating in '99 from college, I've busted my ass to claw my way up to lower middle management. (ha!) In doing so, I will be reporting just around the cap in my 2007 Form 1040. I was resigned to the fact that I wouldn't be getting a dime. Which sucks, because I live in New York City. Alone.

Which means that more often than not, my hard working ass is broke after scraping together rent that's more than most flyover state's average mortgage and car payments combined, the monthly raping from Time Warner to just get your basic digital cable and broadband internet access, the triple slam of Fed, State and NYC taxes with each paycheck and all the other trappings of living an adult life.

But ah! Finally, the rhetoric has been made plain and simple with the above chart published in today's WSJ. I still may end up with a little something to donate to the good folks at Sallie Mae (Two more years and those student loan payments will finally be a thing of the past!).

Now if I can only just figure out what my 'adjusted gross income' is...