Some Republicans in Congress are expressing doubts about President Donald Trump’s proposal to send $2,000 checks to most Americans from the revenues generated by his new tariffs on trading partners around the world.
The checks, which Trump said could arrive next summer, could give Republicans a big boost in the elections next year, but some lawmakers are worried about the effect on the deficit and the debt, as well as the risk of inflation when millions of beneficiaries start spending their payments.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said this week that he would like to see tariff revenues be used to reduce the $38 trillion national debt. “I’ve ... heard suggestions that they would apply any tariff revenue to debt repayment, which I think is a really good idea,” Thune said. “The amount of revenue coming in from the tariffs is considered to be substantial at this point and hopefully can be put to a useful purpose, in my view one of which would be repaying the debt.”
Sen. James Lankford agreed. “Any income that’s coming in from anywhere is reducing the deficit at this point,” he said. “Whatever dividend that would be paid … would still add to our debt.”
Sen. Rand Paul called the checks a “crazy idea,” since the government is still running a budget deficit, even with the bump in tariff revenues. “It has to be borrowed from China,” he said this week. “Maybe we should call them and ask them if they’ll send the checks directly from China.”
In the House, Reps. Vern Buchanan and David Schweikert also cited the deficit as a prime concern. “I can’t make that math work,” Schweikert said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson noted that the details of the plan are hazy at best, making it hard to evaluate. “I’m not sure what’s being proposed,” he said. “It’s sort of a hypothetical.”
Some conservative policy mavens have their doubts, as well. “Sending out checks to people is a bad way to stimulate the economy,” Stephen Moore, a former Trump economic adviser, told CNN. “If there is tariff revenue, that should be used to cut income taxes across the board. Stimulus checks only stimulate inflation.”
Asked about the possibility that refund checks could boost inflation, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered an unusual solution to the potential problem. “Maybe we could persuade Americans to save” the money rather than spending it, he suggested to Fox News.