While the stock market implodes on or ahead of schedule, as predicted, I had another revelation last night that anyone with a first-grade understanding of math could have also arrived yet. We can’t afford this $5,000 dividend check idea.
I mean, we can’t really afford anything as a country right now, but it is arguably the worst moment in history to randomly hand out $5,000 to citizens for no reason.
I would love $5,000. You would love $5,000. I have yet to encounter the American who opens his mailbox, finds a check for five grand from the United States Treasury and screams, “Goddammit, not this again.”
But unfortunately, there is a very small problem with President Trump’s latest proposal to send every adult American a $5,000 “Trump dividend” if Republicans retain control of Congress in November: we don’t have the f*cking money.
Trump unveiled the idea at the Republican convention in Dallas, promising a $5,000 payment to every adult U.S. citizen if Republicans win the House and Senate. With roughly 240 million adult citizens, Reuters estimates the program would cost approximately $1.2 trillion. Trump’s explanation for how we can afford this is essentially that America is now swimming in money. “We’re taking in trillions, trillions of dollars,” he said while discussing the proposal.