The federal government has completed its mail out of those economic stimulus checks to more than 130 million households, but testimony given before Congress last week by the National Retail Federation suggests the cash didn't make it past the local grocery store or gas station: According to this story:
"Results are better than they would have been if Congress had not enacted the tax rebates," an executive from the National Retail Federation told a congressional hearing. "But consumer spending remains subdued because of the stresses of declining home values, escalating fuel and food costs, increasing unemployment and weak financial markets. We believe that a compelling case can be made for providing additional economic stimulus legislation."
Polling information by the NRF suggests that consumers who received their rebate checks spent 42.9% of it, "but
that nearly half of the money spent had gone to gasoline (9.7%) or
necessities such as groceries (10.4%)." Clothing and apparel, the
next-largest category, got a scant 3.3% of the money. Survey respondents said 25.2% of their
checks went to pay off debt and 17.1% went into savings.
