President Donald Trump is mailing $500 checks to nearly 1 million Americans across 30 states. He may be trying to attract votes, jab at his predecessor, and make an ideological point, experts told Business Insider.
The White House says the program is returning “Obama overcharges” to enrollees in the Affordable Care Act, after the Biden administration collected surplus “user fees” from insurers who passed those on to people in the form of higher insurance premiums.
“I am proud to return your money to you, and I will never stop fighting to put the American People FIRST, restore Affordability, protect your hard-earned money, and lower the Cost of Healthcare,” Trump said in a letter that’s also being mailed to recipients of the $500 checks this week.
The government making cash payments to more than 950,000 of its citizens might seem similar to a universal basic income. But Karl Widerquist, a philosophy professor at Georgetown University-Qatar and the author of several books about UBI, said the checks have “very little relation to UBI,” as they’re only for select enrollees, and are being “justified as a return of an overpayment.”
But he said a “uniform payment to a million people, without regard to how much they might have overpaid, makes the motivation to rectify overpayments questionable.”
Thomas Roulet, a Cambridge University professor and ethics expert, said the program appeared to be “taking a dig” at the Biden administration’s policies.
Roulet added that the initiative seemed to be underpinned by libertarian ideology; that “citizens know better how to spend their money than government does,” and that a “small state is good and Trump is making the point that this conveys a return of resources to citizens.”
Americans will head to the voting booths in November to decide whether Republicans will retain control of the House and Senate, or cede them to Democrats.
Trump has framed the $500 payment as a helping hand to Americans, many of whom are being pinched financially.
The US-Iran conflict has driven up energy prices, while soaring Treasury bond yields are pushing up interest rates on credit cards, car loans, mortgages, and other forms of debt.
Health insurance premiums have also spiked for many households since the end of last year, when Republicans stopped Democrats from extending subsidies that had lowered premiums.
In September, the US leader floated a $5,000 “Trump Dividend” for every American if Republicans keep control of both chambers of Congress.
“The promise to pay $5,000 is much more like a UBI, but it also has several aspects that make it suspicious,” Widerquist said. He questioned why Trump wouldn’t introduce the legislation now, while Republicans control both houses of Congress, if he was serious about it.
“Republicans could almost certainly get enough Democratic support to overcome a filibuster and get checks to people before Christmas,” he said. “Apparently, the President doesn’t want to give checks to Americans unless Donald Trump gets something out of it.”
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