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American Morning
Ready, Set, Spend!
Aired July 20, 2001 - 11:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Get ready, get set, go spend. That is what the government is hoping you will do as it mails out the first batch of tax rebate checks today. Your check could be worth from $300 to $600. And it could arrive in your mailbox as early as next week. The government hopes you'll take the money to the mall or perhaps the dealer showroom and spur the stumbling economy.
First up this hour, let's check in with Jeff Flock. He is watching the checks as they get ready to go -- Jeff, good morning.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Daryn. Good morning to you.
We have been keeping an eye on them all morning. And if you have never gotten a check -- a lot of people, I suppose they're the types that tend to be the ones sending the government a check at tax time. So if you don't know what a refund, a rebate check looks like, they've got a big one up there to kind of give you some sense of it as this room fills up.
This is the place where Vice President Cheney will be within the hour, as well as the treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, as well as the Senate majority leader -- or the minority leader now -- that is Trent Lott -- and the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, Bill Thomas. They will all be here, as well as senators from Kansas, as well as Missouri, to kick this all off.
Mr. Cheney himself has not been bashful about saying that he would like as much attention to all of this as possible. And we've gotten some extraordinary access from the IRS this morning -- in fact, a camera we still have placed in the backs of the bowels of this building next to an extraordinary machine that envelops the checks in an envelope -- you thought that perhaps those checks got stuffed in envelopes? No. They, in fact, are literally enveloped in paper.
That's the way it apparently works most efficiently: a machine that turns out about 30,000 of those an hour. Before we get away here, perhaps -- I don't know where you can best see the boxes -- maybe off to the left there. I believe the number is now, in the first wave: 692,000 checks in the first wave here -- 1.2 million in the second wave next week.
And in case you were wondering, my own Social Security number, the last two digits of it start with a nine. And that means I will be among the last to get a check. I believe September 24 is the target date there -- but on schedule so far here, both for the handing out of the checks. They go in the mail literally at 2:00 local time. Those boxes go on to the post office.
And before that, Vice President Cheney -- things falling over here -- Vice President Cheney and the president himself via satellite will address this crowd to kick this all off and gain as much attention for this tax rebate as they can.
That's the latest from here in Kansas City -- back to you.
KAGAN: Jeff, before we let you go, if other Americans out there want to figure out not just when you are getting your rebate check -- and I'm sure they're thrilled to know that -- if they want to figure out for themselves when they're getting theirs, is there a Web site or somewhere they can go if they haven't received their letter or they're wondering exactly when that money might be showing up?
FLOCK: Indeed there is: the IRS Web site. And I'll tell you, if I had it in front of me, I would give you the URL. But I don't. It may be irs.gov. But I'm not 100 percent sure on that. But, in fact, you can.
And the way it goes, it kinds of goes through in chronological order, It's the last two digits of the Social Security number. If it starts with a nine, you are last. If it starts with a zero, I believe you are first. And it goes chronologically through that over the course of the next several weeks. So that's the easy shorthand. But get to the Web site and they can answer the other questions about whether or not you are liable for state tax on this -- no federal tax, though, on the rebate.
KAGAN: Very good. Didn't mean to put you on the spot there. And the powers that be tell me in our ear they have that Web site. We'll get that up and show folks in just a bit.
Very good. We will check back with you. In fact, we'll be going back live to Kansas City next hour when the vice president -- when Dick Cheney is there, making his presentation. And as we understand it, the vice president will be introducing the president, who will be making an appearance via satellite from Italy.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Give ourselves a plug here: You can also find much of that information itself at CNN.com as well.
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