Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“Donald Trump’s mind is a scary place; no one really knows what goes on there. But it sometimes is interesting to speculate. Trump is now proposing to give us all tariff rebate checks of ‘at least’ $2,000 a piece and to use the rest of the tariff revenue to pay down the national debt. This arithmetic on this doesn’t work. We’re on a path to take in around $270 billion this year in extra revenue due to Trump’s tariffs. … Doing the simple arithmetic, the country has 340 million people. If 10 percent of these people fit Trump’s definition of high-income, and therefore don’t get the rebate, roughly 300 million people would get the checks. At $2,000 a piece, it would come to $600 billion, more than twice what Trump is collecting from us with his import taxes. Since he’s already $330 billion short, how can Trump think he has money to pay down the national debt?” (11/13/25)