President Donald Trump is weighing ideas to distribute stimulus to voters as the public sours on his handling of the economy — but not only do economists not believe this will solve the underlying problems, it could actually backfire on Trump by making them worse, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
This comes after a new jobs report widely regarded as weak, putting further spotlight on Trump’s tariff policies as the economy continues to slow down.
“Mr. Trump, who is set to address the nation on Wednesday night, has repeatedly teased the idea of sending one-time $2,000 rebate checks to many families, funded using money collected from his sweeping global tariffs,” said the report. “But he has not devised a detailed plan for providing the rebates, an expensive policy that Republicans in Congress must approve and one that they have not yet considered.”
Trump has also tried to sell people on the idea they’ll feel tax cuts from his megabill earlier this year in the new season, saying at a Cabinet meeting last week, “Next year is projected to be the largest tax refund season ever, and we’re going to be giving back refunds out of the tariffs, because we’ve taken in literally trillions of dollars. And we’re going to be giving a nice dividend to the people, in addition to reducing debt.”
However, economists warn that in an economy trying to cool off inflation, these kinds of policies will only make it worse.
“Even if Americans were to delight in a series of new government-issued checks, the payments would hardly address the reasons that prices remain so high — including a shortage in housing that has driven up rents and mortgages and the global tariffs that have made imports more expensive,” said the report. “And the money that may soon be sloshing around the economy could end up worsening inflation, undermining Mr. Trump’s own economic goals.”
Alex Durante of the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation told The Times that if Trump is just “pumping money” into the economy without any reforms, he could “just generate a cycle where you continue to get higher prices.”
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