If they really wanted to stimulate the economy, however, they would lower the tax rate across the board and let people keep more of their earned cash. As pointed out (Michael!) this would not be readily perceived as "the government's doing something for me" by most people. Further, if the reduction were as a percentage, it would infuriate the Democrats because the "wealthy" would get a larger dollar reduction even if it were the same percentage.

Given that the government collects money via a system of withholding, one wonders why waiting until June to send out checks — or even sending out checks at all — is necessary. Couldn’t they just let people keep more of their money in February?

Oh, you wanted to stimulate the economy NOW?

Joking aside though, I would imagine it would be difficult and/or costly for most companies to alter their payroll systems to do this.

That and getting a check in the mail is a physical manifestation of people's government "doing something to help me", where as slightly larger paychecks may not be directly attributed to our all caring politicians. And we all know how much they want us to remember this "rebate" package they gave us in November. Actually, I'm surprised they're not waiting until October to give them out, and having them signed by your local congressman.