Republicans reluctantly agreed to a law to send checks soon to non-rich Americans. Then they cheated on the deal, by making an arbitrary rule that poor people who live on government pensions or aid, and don't file tax returns, would not get checks. Unless they find out about this and file a return solely for this rule, they will get shafted.

Yielding to a wave of criticism, Republicans dropped the new requirement only for those who receive Social Security pensions. They must hope that this will divide the opposition, so they could get away with shafting the other affected people: military veterans, and those whose income is small enough to qualify for the existing income assistance.

Why deny this aid to the poorest? Those politicians' overriding goal is to transfer money to the rich, so they take advantage of any opportunity,

I do not submit my tax returns on line because it requires nonfree software. I use xournal to write my data on the PDF form, and print that. As I have no printer, I will visit a copying store to do the printing.

I do this because keeping safe means protecting our freedom as well as our health.