sure, but they are even more ignorant than one should assume if they actually thought they weren't going to have to negotiate it into something more to the liking of the 'pukes.
there was some debate elsewhere about whether the prenotification letter was necessary. given that i live in an apt complex where our boxes are routinely riffled for refund checks during the rebate season, and given that i can imagine lots of people being unaware of the rebate given that they don't regularly attend to the news, i can only imagine that the letter was, indeed, necessary. plus i read somewhere awhile back when the idea was first tossed around, that the IRS has an antiquated system and couldn't possibly have mailed checks all at once. So, they had to do it in waves. Given that necessity, they had to send letters because, just imagine, what would have happened to the IRS No Help Desk had a fourth of the recipients rec'd their's while everyone else sat around wondering why they hadn't gotten one or if they were going to get one at all.
also read that 1/3 will get no or only partial refund, mostly people on low fixed incomes, etc.
kelley