“If the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000,” President Donald Trump promised last week before assembled Republicans at the party’s midterm convention as well as a national television audience. “It will be called the Trump dividend.”
The cost of making good on his pledge, bribe, deal? A cool $1.3 trillion.
I don’t believe Mr. Trump has that much money.
“Because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000,” intoned the president. “Very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders.”
Dividends are paid out of profits; this operation known as the federal government doesn’t turn a profit. Instead, it’s running past $40 trillion
Can we afford to go trillions further into the red? Or pay more in taxes for this additional trillion-dollar-plus giveaway?
As if trying to outdo the president in folly, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick declared “we’re going to deliver” but “not from taxpayer money,” detailing several precarious plans . . . to come up with less than half the needed dough.
On Fox News, Bret Baier brought the vice president into the conversation. J. D. Vance described the current deficit budget in terms of revenue — there is “an extraordinary amount of revenue,” he said — as if the revenue that is not extraordinary enough to cover all current spending is somehow enough to spend $1.3 trillion more without additional debt.
Eric Boehm at Reason says the $5,000 bribe shows that MAGA has run out of ideas.
In an election year when Democrats are featuring wannabe communists, why are Republicans demonstrating a similar lack of sanity?
I think the American voter might be more persuaded by even the smallest dose of common sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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2 replies on “Minus the Five Grand”
I am reminded of what Jesse Jackson and other progressive hustlers called “the Peace Dividend”. When the Cold War ended, they insisted that money previously spent on the military could fund increased government benefits. Never mind that the Federal government was heavily in debt and greatly increasing that debt; never mind that, had the debt and deficit been $0, the alleged “dividend” would be extracted from the taxpayers…
…as would Trump’s proposed “dividend” if the debt and deficit were $0. As it is, some of the burden would fall on taxpayers, some on those whose assets are later seized or discounted as the US effects a settlement with partial default on its debt.
I doubt that Trump has any intention of actually delivering on his dire promise. He can always blame people outside his Administration for a failure to deliver, and his base will rôle-play as if they believe him.
Take it easy. No one takes this promise seriously. The Dem reaction has been something to laugh at. Suddenly they’re aghast at the idea of ‘buying’ votes. This comes after decades of promising ”free health care” and many other ‘goodies’. Their new pet project is Medicare for All. Dems have no idea how expensive Medicare premiums actually are.