President Donald Trump has vowed to send $2,000 checks to Americans, but his cash giveaway scheme has been met with angry pushback from within the Republican Party.
Trump, 79, has repeatedly raised the idea of using the revenue collected from imposing widespread tariffs to send out checks.
According to him, the money will go out in the middle of next year, just before the midterm elections.
He has indicated that the money would go to low and middle-income Americans, although he has been light on specifics.
But as Trump happily pledges to send out dividend checks, members of his own administration have repeatedly backtracked on some of his claims, while some GOP lawmakers have also balked at the idea.
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington told reporters he thought it was better to put money in people’s pockets with pro-growth policies and warned the move could be inflationary.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune had similar thoughts. Asked about such checks on Tuesday, he signaled support for using the tariff revenue to pay down the national debt.
The U.S. national debt has reached more than $38 trillion, up more than $2.3 trillion from just one year ago.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito told reporters this week she largely agreed with Thune but left the door open to seeing more details about the president’s proposal.
Senator Rand Paul, who has been a vocal critic of the president’s tariffs, called Trump’s plan to send checks a “crazy idea” on Tuesday.
Senator Bernie Moreno said over the summer that the tariff checks would never pass, and he remains firm on that.
It’s a conundrum for top Trump officials who have already acknowledged the president can’t take unilateral action and does, in fact, need Congress to act.
Trump’s own economic adviser Kevin Hassett said point blank last week that the plan would require legislation.
While details on Trump’s plan to send out checks have not been ironed out, the Tax Foundation estimated that the proposal could cost between $279 billion and nearly $607 billion, depending on how it’s designed. Either way, it would cost more than the tariffs are set to raise this year.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that if the dividends were designed similarly to how the U.S. handled the COVID relief payments, it would cost an estimated $600 billion.
One GOP lawmaker who has been on board with sending Americans direct payments is Republican Senator Josh Hawley.
In July, he introduced the American Worker Rebate Act. It proposes rebate checks of at least $600 per adult and dependent child, following similar guidelines to the direct payments sent out during COVID in 2020.
The president has been desperately trying to convince Americans that Republicans are the party of affordability, as people have become increasingly uncertain about the economy and are struggling to pay their bills.
Trump has insisted, contrary to the data for many goods and services, that prices are coming down.
But his own Treasury Secretary this week appeared to acknowledge that his proposal to send out checks could be inflationary.
Asked by Fox News’ Bret Baier whether sending checks to most Americans would raise prices, Bessent had a head-turning answer.
He suggested people could hold off on spending the checks.
“Maybe we could persuade Americans to save that,” he said.
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