They wanted to get money into people's pockets for an economic stimulus. But if you were to fill out the tax form next April using the new rates, you'd get the tax-cut benefits a second time. That's why the tax tables that will accompany next year's 1040 will charge you the old 15 percent tax rate, not the new 10 percent rate. You won't have to do that, because the amount owed that you pull from the tables at the back of the booklet will have done that for you. It was a congressional and presidential decision to do it this way, and we're implementing what we were told to do.
Every time there's another computation, it increases the likelihood of errors.
I think people think what they're getting is a refund of taxes they paid in 2000.