huffpost.com
Trump Claims $5,000 Dividend Checks To Entire Country Can Be Done ‘Easily’
President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday he could “easily” send $5,000 checks to the entire country if Republicans hold the House and Senate this November.“It’ll work out very easily,” Trump told HuffPost after disembarking Marine One at the White House.Asked how he would get Congress to approve the money, Trump seemed to envision sending the checks without congressional approval despite prohibitions on unauthorized spending in federal law and the U.S. Constitution. Trump suggested he would send the payments the same way he gave a $1,776 “Warrior Dividend” bonus to military members last year and a $500 Obamacare “rebate” to nearly 1 million people this year. “It’s going to work out very well, just like we got 1776 for our military. Just like we caught the Obamacare scam, and we’re giving people back their money after they got scammed by President Obama,” Trump said. “That’ll work out very easily.”The money for troops came from repurposed congressionally authorized Defense Department housing subsidies, however. The Obamacare rebates were purported to be refunds for people charged excessive fees for Affordable Care Act health plans. Sending $5,000 to every adult in the U.S. would be a much more significant program and would cost more than $1 trillion. Trump suggested the so-called “Trump Dividend” would be funded by his tariffs. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, the U.S. brought in $236 billion in tariff revenue this year but has had to send refunds amounting to $155 billion. “That’s not going to be a big problem, but the dividends are happening, and if we win, if we Republicans win, that dividend, and the Democrats can’t do it because they don’t do tariffs, and therefore the country is going to go bankrupt.”