How can they call it a tax rebate when a lot who are receiving it didn't pay anything to begin with?

Doesn't rebate imply pay in get back?

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"How could you possibly live in the freest nation in the history of the world and only see oppression? How could you live in the least imperialist power in human history and see us as the ultimate in imperialism? How can you live in the least bigoted nation in human history ... and see racism lurking in every dark shadow?" he asked.

The comedian attributed the trend to a "rejection of all fact, reason, evidence, logic, truth, morality, and decency."

Alternate question:

How can they call it a rebate when it's money borrowed from our assumed future tax bills?

Not sure. Generally we think of it that way, but there might be some "rebate" deals where you end up getting paid.

Anyway, they are calling it a rebate to differentiate it from a tax credit...which would be a reduction of tax liability and of no interest to people who paid no taxes.

Part of the reason why people who pay the least (or nothing) are getting rebate checks is because they are the most likely group to spend it. A few hundred dollars in tax rebates will just disappear into the savings/checking accounts of upper income people. However, this same few hundered dollars is much more likely to be spent by people in the bottom income brackets. At least that is part of the theory.