As I recently mentioned [1], I got my Missouri state tax refund check back a week ago.  Shortly after, I was even more shocked to get my Federal refund back.  The insanely over-efficient processing aside, this brings up an entirely new question: why haven't I gotten my economic stimulus check yet?

Since it apparently cost the IRS about 42 million dollars [2] to send out notices that these checks would be coming, I'm sure the government is painfully aware of how much postage and processing costs them in relation to these types of programs.  Why, then, didn't they just send out the economic stimulus checks in the same envelope as the regular tax refund checks?  Sure, there are plenty of people who will be getting stimulus checks that won't get tax refunds, but what about the millions of people who they're already taking the time and money to send tax refunds to?

Since one of the requirements of getting a stimulus check is to file a tax return for 2007, the IRS clearly has to review your return before your stimulus check will be approved.  How difficult would it really be to consolidate the mailing of both checks?  Or better yet... why not just add the stimulus amount to the amount of your tax refund, and just send one check?

This is yet another example of government waste.  I understand that what I'm suggesting might sound simple, but be difficult to impliment.  But surely the same government that can process millions of tax returns in less than a month can find a way to automate the process of simply sending out checks.