I want my two dollars!

By mlumadue on April 17, 2020

According to the US Treasury most people who are eligible will have gotten their checks on the 15th, but because we seem to have the cast of Gilligan's Island running the show glitches plague the system. Money is being deposited in incorrect accounts and people who owed tax in 2018-2019 and / or use on-line systems do not have a way of sending direct deposit info to the IRS. Checking the status of your return or finding a way to give your banking info to the IRS is resulting in dead ends, as people are greeted with a generic error "Payment status not available" (I know this is a "generic error" because the words "error-generic" appear in the URL).

irs error-generic

Even my 500 year old mother, who has direct deposit for her social security, hasn't gotten anything. Waiting for a paper check could take near forever, and will end up being delayed so that POTUS can have his name printed in the memo section.

This shouldn't be any wonder to anyone who has been paying attention, as the department charged with sending out the money, the IRS, has had its funding cut for the last 10 or so years by about 20%. To add insult to injury, the PA Unemployment System's web site states it can take from 4 - 6 weeks to get your first payment, if you can get your claim approved. I imagine it isn't much better in other states.

So basically I am, like a lot of of other people, living on savings until this stimulus thing is all sorted, or unemployment finally pays out, whichever comes first. But it should be all OK in the end, as Treasury Secretary and John Oliver's evil sentient robot double Steve Mnuchin says that the $1200 should be more than enough to carry people through a couple months...?

It has gotten so bad out there that the police in one Maryland town are reminding people to put on pants. At this point I say we all drop the pants, 'cause its coming in hot and you don't want them to get ripped.