I meant that more as a description of people who don't understand finances. Anyone who knows anything realizes that a tax return is returning you your own money

I meant that more as a description of people who don't understand finances. Anyone who knows anything realizes that a tax return is returning you your own money. But some people treat it like a windfall rather than a restoration of their own property. Those kinds of people are the ones that don't think far enough ahead to realize that what's being taken from them, retirement, is much more valuable than what's being given to them, a small tax cut. But anyone with an actual retirement plan should be furious because those programs--that we've paid into for our entire working careers--will be supplying us with significantly less than they would otherwise. Yes, we've known that Social Security isn't going to be enough on its own ever since Bush II replaced all the money with IOUs, but until this tax cut, there was a reasonable expectation that those programs would survive in some form and augment our 401(k) and IRA accounts. Now, we're basically on our own. And with the Republican unwillingness to deal with health care, we'll likely be left to fend for ourselves in that area...convenient since that's the most expensive part of life when it comes to medical expenses. But hey, the 0.01% got it rough and need some tax relief, right?