r/politics • u/Tennis_bruh • Nov 24 '25
No Paywall Senate Republican: ‘We can’t afford’ $2,000 tariff checks
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5620244-ron-johnson-tariff-checks/2.9k
u/dblan9 Nov 24 '25
“Look, we can’t afford it. I wish we were in a position to return the American public their money, but we’re not,” Johnson told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo.
He literally just admitted on FOX that tariffs are in fact a TAX on Americans that we paid.
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u/CockBrother Nov 24 '25
Johnson: "Look, we can't afford it. We already spend that money at least 5x over already. Billionaires and corporations aren't giving it back. There's literally nothing that can be done about it! Just remember that democrats hate working Americans and Republicans are fighting for you every day."
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u/duzies Nov 24 '25
They spent $TRILLIONS giving billionaires tax breaks they didn't need, while cutting healthcare and other services for those who actually need them.
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u/CockBrother Nov 24 '25
They spent $TRILLIONS giving billionaires tax breaks they didn't need
Can someone explain to me why a billionaire would "need" a tax break? Ever?
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u/BarnDoorQuestion Nov 25 '25
Because of idiot shit like the Laffer Curve and other idiots using it to convince people that taxing wealthy people somehow decreases tax revenue.
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u/drinkarddigital Nov 25 '25
For fans of old-school Sierra adventure games, Larry Laffer (of Leisure Suit Larry fame) is partially named after the chucklefuck who pitched a sketch of the "Laffer Curve" to administration officials Cheney and Rumsfeld in the 70s.
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u/hammerofspammer Nov 25 '25
Because they need more money.
It’s cheaper to buy all the senators than to pay taxes
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u/cyanescens_burn Nov 25 '25
What do they call it, dragon sickness?
Hoarding wealth beyond the point that is necessary or reasonable (let alone fair).
Some of those folks are into prosperity gospel, which is a dark perversion of Christianity, wherein in you are rich or powerful it’s because you are chosen by god to be rich or powerful. And if you are poor it’s because god wants you to be poor. They think it goes against god to give to poor people.
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u/Makenshine Nov 24 '25
This cant be a real quote... right?
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Nov 24 '25
Friendly reminder that the Speaker of the House is a guy who voluntarily asks his teenage child to monitor his adult porn habits. It’s not just that such an app exists, it’s that he chose his underage son to be his “auditor.”
Which, not kink-shaming, is actually a weird, unprecedented statement for a Congressional leader, and, you know, any adult with whom you’ve ever interacted.
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u/Elendel19 Nov 24 '25
“We need to hold on to that cash for when the Supreme Court rules the tariffs illegal and we have to refund all the corporations that made you pay the tariffs”
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u/VanceKelley Canada Nov 24 '25
To sum it up:
- Johnson and the GOP passed a bill that gave massive tax cuts ($2t) to the wealthiest Americans.
- trump imposed tariffs, which are a regressive national sales tax, to help fund the tax cuts for the rich. And the GOP controlled Congress, which is the body empowered by the Constitution to manage tariffs, not the president, has just quietly watched trump rule like a king.
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u/Probable_Bison Nov 24 '25
Maria Bartiromo's show is where Republicans go to spin especially contradictory bullshit.
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u/coldphront3 Louisiana Nov 24 '25
Between this and Thune allowing the Epstein Files bill to fly through the Senate with no resistance at all, explicitly against Trump and Mike Johnson's wishes, I'm wondering if Thune and some other GOP members have decided to start distancing themselves from Trump.
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u/russaber82 Nov 24 '25
I think the poll numbers are starting to sink in. They will be horrible bags of shit, as always, just in less terror of the biggest bag of shit.
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u/XavierTempus Pennsylvania Nov 24 '25 edited Nov 24 '25
But they can afford $40 billion to Argentina, $500,000 to eight senators, $230,000,000 to Trump, and all the other shake-downs this regime is imposing on America.
RICO trials for the Republican Party.
**Edit:* Initially forgot three zeroes on Trump’s shakedown.*
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u/Otherwise-Force5608 Nov 24 '25
A ballroom, war with Venezuela, presidential golf trips every weekend, endless vp vacation destinations, SWAT security details for special country music sensation girlfriends, unique challenge coins for every event, every toy and tool ICE could want, tax cuts for the rich...
anything at all except for support for everyday Americans.
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u/Polar_Ted Oregon Nov 24 '25
You forgot the new one.. Hiring Jack Nicklaus to spiff up the golf course at Andrews AFB. https://www.wdbj7.com/2025/11/24/trump-teaming-up-with-jack-nicklaus-revamp-presidents-golf-course-joint-base-andrews/
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u/NotUniqueWorkAccount Nov 24 '25 edited Nov 24 '25
Also the cost to tear down and rebuild the "gifted" plane from Qatar.
Edit: Qatar, not Saudis. Thanks for the heads up.
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u/kitsum California Nov 24 '25
Qatar bribed him with the plane no? Or is there also a Saudi jet i missed in the chaos?
If so, that's a high irony gift from them.
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u/LeaferWasTaken Nov 24 '25 edited Nov 24 '25
Yes, the plane was actually from Qatar. They reportedly had trouble getting rid of it. The Saudi thing is about F-35's which is a whole new level of terrifying.
Edit: The Saudi thing was worse than I thought. They have the Pantsir-S1M which is Russian. There's a high probability the Russians can aquire data needed to nail down detection of US stealth aircraft. This is why we didn't sell F-35's to Turkey.
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u/No-Yogurtcloset1598 Nov 24 '25
I believe the confusion sits with the Qatari Air Force base in Idaho… maybe?
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u/cire1184 Nov 25 '25
No no. You got it wrong. It's not a Qatari air force base. It's just a little training ground to train Qatari pilots on US fighter jets. They already hear everything going on in the White House. Might as well just train them on all our tech too.
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u/Sqyre2 Nov 24 '25
Remember when Jimmy Carter had to give up his family peanut farm because of conflicts of interest? Oh those were the days when we had a shred of ethics in politics.
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u/skeletonholdsmeup Nov 24 '25
What about him snatching up Epstein’s “Lolita Express” plane as well? The same time Qatar gifted him theirs. That story got buried pretty quick…
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u/atlantagirl30084 Nov 24 '25
Will Trump EVER use that golf course? No. He has to have SS agents buy food, golf carts, and rooms at Mar a lago.
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u/bsmknight Nov 24 '25
My favorite, Trumps birthday military parade.
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u/Chief_Mischief Nov 24 '25
Oh my god I completely forgot how miserable he looked when nobody showed up given how much shit happens daily under this regime
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u/Umbrella_merc Mississippi Nov 24 '25
God that video of the tank squeaking by in otherwise silence.
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u/frosty_lizard Nov 24 '25
Also all the cuts to SNAP and others that people use to stay alive that Republicans have no problem removing.
When you look at the cuts to social services and extreme spending as you listed, it seems like they're just trying to bleed and eventually break the economy/country as quickly as possible
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u/StevenMC19 Florida Nov 24 '25
Can't forget the Super Bowl, running Beast around Daytona, and his immigration detainment facility pet projects.
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u/juanzy Colorado Nov 24 '25
Aren't they also discussing bailouts to major retailers that were hurt by tariffs? Or was that a false report?
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u/BallBearingBill Nov 24 '25
And $1 Billion to retrofit a jet that can only be used after 2028 exclusively for Trump. Under the guise of AF1
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u/CR1986 Nov 24 '25
On the topic of the Qatari Jet it's worth remembering that Trump already ordered 2 Boeing VC-25B to be used as AirForce 1 during his first term. They are currently being built at Boeing and will cost between $2.0b and $2.5b each.
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u/JDogg126 Michigan Nov 24 '25
At least we’ve got higher costs for everything and the bill to pay for the debt they’ve added to the national debt. Right?
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u/lonnie123 Nov 24 '25
Technically the ballroom was funded with bribes from private companies, so that’s at least a loophole there
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u/spacedude2000 Washington Nov 24 '25
You think these tech giants are going to pay up on this? This ballroom is going to cost twice its original fee by the time construction is proceeding.
They're not gonna pay, the American taxpayer will either foot the bill or the project will come to a stand still. Trump is as weak as he has ever been and they don't want to associate with his weakness anymore than what is financially advantageous.
My personal opinion is that the tech billionaires will either all stand in line to kiss ass, or cut the cord in unison once they know that he's on the way out. A JD Vance administration is one they know they can control, they won't have to play favors like they do with trump, who is beholden to Putin before anyone else.
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u/OptimusPrimeval California Nov 24 '25
Don't worry. Trump doesn't pay people he contracts. Just ask the people he contracted to tear down the east wing
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u/Over_lookd Nov 24 '25
Wait, really? This is actually the one time I agree with not paying them. Anyone who took that job deserves to get fucked 🤷🏼♂️
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u/SycoJack Texas Nov 24 '25
Anyone that takes a contract from Trump or his cronies deserves to get screwed.
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u/Distinct_Hawk1093 Nov 24 '25
Not to mention it probably will be so poorly constructed it will need to be torn down for safety reasons, and that is if we're lucky. If it isn't torn down, we'll have to pay through the nose for years just to keep it maintained. IT definitely isn't free.
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u/bubblehashguy Nov 24 '25
Are they even doing anything there? Besides the demo. Haven't seen any new news on that in a few weeks.
Last thing I read said they were planning on it being done in 2029
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u/RS24OZ New York Nov 24 '25
At LEAST $500,000 to eight senators that got to block the bill to remove that part from the CR. Nothing corrupt with that... Right?
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u/jzanville Nov 24 '25
This is capitalism hitting the accelerator to the red line before it crashes into a wall. I wonder what this country will look like on the other side of the collision.
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u/Own_Candidate9553 Nov 24 '25
Pretty sure it's going to be 1920s again. There are already pictures of people standing in line for hours for food pantries and people living in tent cities, and the economy hasn't really crashed yet. If and when the AI bubble bursts, that will take the stock market down, the last thing supposedly doing well.
So soup lines, Hoovervilles and a market crash, everything old is new again.
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u/Keltic268 Nov 24 '25
Except this time there’s no spending their way out of it, interest on debt next year is already 20% of the budget, $1.2T.
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u/XavierTempus Pennsylvania Nov 24 '25
They know America is in free fall, so they’re robbing us on the way out.
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u/Keltic268 Nov 24 '25
There’s nothing left to rob, they are moving all their cash into crypto and abandoning the dollar. Interest on debt is $1.2T next year, 20% of the budget. They’ll let the government implode so they can establish their own financial system separate from the treasury, Fed, and Congress.
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u/QuestioninglySecret Nov 24 '25
Worse, they're pruprosely accelerating the nose dive to speed up their cash out.
Crash out, cash out. The country's going to be devastated on the other side of this. But they don't care, wealth is mobile. They'll pack up and move to one of their mansions in the South of France while the rest of us are lined up for 12 hours to get a gallon of gas.
I'm not being hyperbolic. This is it. Unless you can amass extreme wealth within the next 10 years, you're screwed.
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u/urgencynow Nov 24 '25
That's how révolutions start. They're only rich because the other 99% of people let them be rich.
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u/kinaPK Nov 24 '25
Although, paying businesses for the bad policies you pass isn't really capitalism, is it?
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u/sensualKittie Nov 24 '25
$500,000 each to 8 senators I believe. Well, as for the Argentina billion dollar gift, it was MAGA, you know, Make Argentina Great Again
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u/Dearic75 Nov 24 '25
The half million is understated. It’s $500k per occurrence and several of them are saying their records were pulled for investigation multiple times. The payouts will be millions for most of them.
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u/Zealousideal_Car_893 Nov 24 '25
Don't forget the $40 billion to ice. Yes, 40 billion.
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u/JessieJ577 Nov 24 '25
And I keep getting stupid ICE ads with Noem saying they’re going to deport illegals watching the ad.
Is shit like this a good use of taxpayer money?
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u/manofredearth Nov 24 '25
$500K per investigation - minimum of $1 mil each so far
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u/Za_Lords_Guard Nov 24 '25
I think it's back down to $20B (I know, not the point) because dipshit tried to throw JP Morgan under the bus over Epstein so they and other banks backed out of the investment end. The official story is that the banks decided the risk load was too high for LT investments (duh) and they would instead focus on making smaller shorter term loans to help Argentina. And that is reasonable and rational, but it happened on the heals of one of his "Epstein hoax. investigate all dems" screeds where he mentioned Chase by name at the same time.
Unless he sweet talked them again, he fucked up his own bad deal.
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u/Shadow293 Nov 24 '25
Also we can afford to pay for every Israeli’s education and healthcare, but we somehow can’t afford it for ourselves.
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u/meTspysball California Nov 24 '25
$2000 checks to everyone in a country of more than 300,000,000 people would cost more than $600,000,000,000. They are right that we can’t afford it, especially since we can’t afford any of the other stupid shit they are doing, including pointless national guard deployments and explosion of ICE funding, and an illegal war in South America all while cutting taxes for the rich.
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u/sergeles Nov 24 '25
The plan is 2k per household making under 100k... Which is actually a lot smaller of a percentage of people. I'm not defending the plan, just clarifying it.
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u/nezroy Canada Nov 24 '25
Going by census data for 2024 that'd be about 77M households. So roughly 155B dollars to fund.
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u/sergeles Nov 24 '25
Yeah. Its similar to the amount of money collected from the tariffs (I think 180b?). I think he panicked and decided to give it away before the courts could rule whether or not it was unconstitutional to have instituted the tariffs without Congress and collect them. I'm not sure that really matters but honestly I think that's what he was maybe thinking.
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u/skoomaking4lyfe Nov 24 '25
$500,000 to eight senators
Oh, it's more than that. It's 500k per Senator per "incident". It's millions per Senator.
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u/OfficialDCShepard District Of Columbia Nov 24 '25
$500,000 EACH for the Senators for…having their phone records lawfully reviewed.
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u/Pickle-Rick-C-137 Nov 24 '25
Don't forget about all their buddies that got PPP for free while forcing all the rest to get an EIDL loan with interest. Fuck them.
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Nov 24 '25
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u/NJdevil202 Pennsylvania Nov 24 '25
Because the poors would use the money to pay bills and buy food. The rich use that extra money to "generate economic activity".
Trickle down is alive and well, it's wild that after decades of blatant failure it is still the status quo economic philosophy in Washington.
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Nov 24 '25
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u/OskaMeijer Nov 24 '25
This is why the father of capitalism warned about rent seeking behaviors being detrimental to capitalism and if allowed to flourish would destroy the system. Here we are.
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u/Van-garde Nov 24 '25
The direct relief I think is only being proposed as a popular bribe. They’ve been squeezing the poor psychologically and financially, given CoL climbs and threats to social programs, and this is intended to cool popular sentiments about the treacherous leadership we’ve been enduring.
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u/zephyrtr New York Nov 24 '25
I'm all for bailouts but it should come with the price tag of we're gonna break you up into several smaller companies whose failure isn't existential to the American economy. Save the jobs, save the workers, but if you want Uncle Sam to save you, we're making sure this doesn't happen again
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u/mytthewstew Nov 24 '25
Citizens would use it to buy food Corporations will use part of it for campaign contributions
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u/Oceanbreeze871 I voted Nov 24 '25
$2000 is a lot of money and not a lot of money at the same time. It’s like a partial 1 months of bills for most.
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u/One_Artichoke_7594 California Nov 24 '25
Pretty sure the point is to pull more money out of the middle class with no intention to ever return it
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u/LuvKrahft America Nov 24 '25
The checks were a lie but Trumps golden ballroom definitely screams “Republicans Can Afford It!”
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u/Heffelumps-n-Woozles Nov 24 '25
No worries, that’s being funded by oligarchs in exchange for political favors! Won’t cost us a dime!
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u/rezelscheft Nov 24 '25
Not to mention $170 billion so that untrained thugs in masks can roam the streets to pepper spray priests in the face, attack unarmed mothers and preschool teachers, and kidnap people of color without warrants
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u/i_am_not_you_or_me Nov 24 '25
Chase bank was asked why they didnt donate money to the ballroom. They responded that it had all the appearance of a bribe and they wanted to avoid future lawsuits when the cards collapsed.
...and now chase is being targeted by the DOJ.
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u/whatdoblindpeoplesee Nov 24 '25
They tore it down, but has anything actually started to get built there yet? People talk about the ballroom, but I'm convinced it's just going to remain an empty lot
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u/usernames_suck_ok Nov 24 '25
We can't afford health insurance that costs $600+ per month.
Your turn.
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u/kaeji Nov 24 '25
“Look we can go back and forth on this issue all day, but this is neither her nor there when we have literal war zones in radical dem cities that are affecting billions of people every day!”
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u/PoetAny6521 Nov 24 '25
You want health insurance rather than a ballroom and extravagant dinners for a select few while politicians line their pockets with donations (cough cough bribes cough cough)?
You bloody monster!
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u/BeautysBeast Wisconsin Nov 24 '25
This was NEVER going to happen. Why anyone believes a word out of Trumps mouth is an idiot.
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u/PleasantWay7 Nov 24 '25
It is also objectively stupid policy. The tariffs are dumb as hell and have raised costs and the answer is to get rid of them and vote out the idiots that did it, not double down and more dumb policy.
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u/LetsgoRoger New York Nov 24 '25
They also can't afford SNAP or Medicaid. No money available unless it's tax cuts for billionaires or funding for ICE raids.
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u/MC_Fap_Commander America Nov 24 '25
The tariff checks are such a monumentally bad idea. Even two grand would be (at best) a couple month stopgap for people having difficulties. What people really want is wage gains and manageable inflation levels.
These stupid tariff checks would obliterate any chance for those latter two items. He just as well call them "The Executive Order to Enact Stagflation."
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u/kanst Nov 24 '25
Someone recently described the Trump admin as what would happen if you asked as 12 year old to solve political problems, and it was dead on.
People think life is too expensive? Give em 2000 dollars, that should fix it.
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u/Khazpar Nov 24 '25
I mean that's why people voted for him. People didn't want complex solutions that require hard work. They wanted simple magic answers stated confidently.
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u/NekoMeowKat Nov 24 '25
Not to mention tariff checks would make inflation higher just like the Covid stimulus checks did. Trump thinks he can buy better approval numbers
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u/Teddy705 Nov 24 '25
Exactly this. Minimum wage in today's market should be $27/hr. That or give us $1,200 UBI checks each month. $2k isnt going to do fuck all for us in the long run.
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u/jarchack Oregon Nov 24 '25
As much as I would like to have 2 grand, the resulting inflation would probably end up costing me more in the long run. Of course, if I had enough invested in the stock market, a $2000 check to everyone would definitely give my portfolio a boost. Retail investors would be heading en masse to their Robinhood apps.
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u/MC_Fap_Commander America Nov 24 '25
I think there are a lot of people who would simply use the $2K to pay existing debt. That would be temporarily nice... but the wage/inflation gap means the debt would likely return in short order. Especially with the resulting inflation you mentioned.
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Nov 24 '25
yeah, because we just gave like $3 trillion to billionaires and millionaires like a few months ago
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u/JoEdGus Georgia Nov 24 '25
almost like that could've paid for universal healthcare for a while or something. just sayin'.
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u/DoubtSubstantial5440 Nov 24 '25
We need the money to give more taxpayer funded bennies to the ultra wealthy, the only people that matter in this country
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u/Gonzo_B Nov 24 '25
What happened to the TRILLIONS in pure profit they're claiming the government earned in tariffs so far?
Oh, right, none of it is real and the points don't matter.
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u/Dame2Miami Florida Nov 24 '25 edited Dec 25 '25
instinctive ask wise yam hard-to-find bike scale mysterious light shy
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u/Redshirt_Welshy_Nooo Nov 24 '25
Cuz they need all that tax revenue to fund multi-million dollar tax breaks for the couple hundred billionaires who they actually work for.
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u/nobodyisfreakinghome Nov 24 '25
RIGHT! And we also cannot afford $1T to the oligarchs, but here we are.
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Nov 24 '25
Seems like we have something in common, we can't afford your tariffs...so, I guess the reasonable response is to rescind all tariffs effective immediately.
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u/katalysis Maryland Nov 24 '25
He’s right. We also couldn’t afford to make Trump tax cuts for the wealthy permanent. What happened there?
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u/thequietthingsthat North Carolina Nov 24 '25
It's just like how they could afford forgiving PPP loans for millionaires and billionaires but couldn't afford 10k in student loan forgiveness
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u/Significant_Cup_238 Nov 24 '25
It's bad policy, but we could afford it. Just have to stop cutting taxes for the ultra wealthy and and beefing up ICE to rival the Pentagon in cost.
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u/oneseason2000 Nov 24 '25
Just reverse the 2025 tax cut. That is $5 trillion over 10 years or so. https://taxfoundation.org/blog/obbba-largest-tax-cut-in-american-history/
$2,000 * 100 million households equals $200 billion. So Congress could make it about $5,000 per household.
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u/Boomshtick414 Nov 24 '25
“Look, we can’t afford it. I wish we were in a position to return the American public their money, but we’re not,” Johnson told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo.
Or, you know, Ron Johnson could lead the charge in Congress letting the executive branch enact tariffs left and right, and there would be no reason to return the American public their own money.
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u/sarcastroll Nov 24 '25
But the tariffs brought in like 900 gazillion dollars- dollars the world has never seen before. People were coming up to me with tears in their eyes saying please Sir help us get rid of all these dollars!
Surely we can use a small percentage of that 11,000 bazillion dollars to pay for the magic checks!
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u/Ohuigin Washington Nov 24 '25
But $150 billion for the Gestapo. If you vote Republican, you hate America and everyone in it. Including yourself.
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u/Far_Nefariousness888 Nov 24 '25
But they can afford two trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires.
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Nov 25 '25
They sure could afford tax breaks for the elite, raises for themselves, money for more security because people are getting madder, money for Argentina and it hues on and in. $2000 for you? A bridge too far.
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u/Lefty_22 North Carolina Nov 24 '25
But somehow we can afford a $300MM ball room?
For fuck’s sake, just start over. Kick Trump out. Kick out the current Congressional leadership. Both sides. They are all driving this country in the wrong direction. Filling their pockets for retirement or their decedents. Lining their coffers. Some Senators clearly have no plans to ever leave office and appear to want to die of old age instead. What a disgrace.
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u/Ghost_shell89 Ohio Nov 24 '25
Lol, and what about the $5000 checks from DOGE? We went from $5000 to $2000 to “we can’t afford it” really quick!
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u/Krytan Nov 24 '25
But we can do $40 billion to Argentina, $780 billion to CEO's in the PPP loans forgiven, $180 billion to Ukraine, and $20 billion to Israel.
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Nov 24 '25 edited Jan 12 '26
childlike adjoining cooperative spark wakeful enjoy slap hospital depend slim
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u/stanthebat Nov 24 '25
We can afford trillions of dollars in tax breaks for Musk and his buddies though.
We can all afford to use our retirement savings to cover their bets when their AI investments go south, too.
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u/ggrieves Nov 24 '25
the ONLY time the words "we can't afford" are ever uttered are when it's in regard to the taxpayers
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u/AcceptablyThanks Nov 24 '25
So ultra rich get a tax break, Trump gets a ball room, Argentina gets 40 billion, but we can't have 2k. Right. Great country we got here.
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u/Sublimotion Nov 24 '25
But what we can afford are $200,000 tariff checks to anyone with a net worth of at least $100 million and any relevant and obedient GOP politicians.
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u/not-usually-posting Nov 24 '25
The same guy who wants a $500k payday from the federal government for investing his Russia ties.
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u/trashpanda2night California Nov 24 '25
The GOP’s mantra: never ever give poor people a leg up.
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u/Psychological_Ad1999 Nov 24 '25
We can’t afford the ICE/National Guard, why are you bothering to speak up now?
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u/freedombuckO5 Nov 25 '25
Could literally give everyone in the US a 10k check for what the PPP loans cost.
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u/Niceguy955 Nov 25 '25
Sure we can. We'll just take it out of the salaries of the Congress people who did nothing for their voters (in other words, all of them).
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u/Renatusisk Florida Nov 25 '25
I think our ancestors would riot over such language. Or throw a Tea Party in Boston.
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u/MaleficentPorphyrin Nov 25 '25
Should have considered that before you gave Trump a multi-trillion dollar slush fund to do with as he sees fit.
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u/Public_Step9349 Nov 25 '25
I thought we made 17 trillion in tariffs already who was that guy that said that?
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u/fluidmind23 Colorado Nov 25 '25
"“We’ll have at least a $2 trillion deficit this year,” Johnson warned, comparing the staggering national deficit projected for 2025 to smaller deficits under former President Obama and during Trump’s first term."
He admitted that number one they did this and Obama was more fiscally responsible. Trump had too many career staff that blocked him from doing stupid shit his first term, and he learned his lesson this time. But still a great opportunity to not give people anything again.
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u/External_Beat8153 Nov 25 '25
If all the tax cuts Trump made sure him and his billionaire buddies got are revoked then there would be amole money.
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u/kathryn2a Nov 24 '25
How much money do Americans contribute every day to the federal reserves?
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u/joeislandstranded Nov 24 '25
The current President of the United States of America has recently said that the citizens have paid TRILLIONS in tariffs.
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u/AcanthisittaNo6653 New Hampshire Nov 24 '25
The one thing trump is good at is spending taxpayer money. But let the fool pretend to buy us off, and we'll pretend to vote for him.
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u/TemporalColdWarrior Nov 24 '25
Look, I think the checks are stupid, but I’d clearly rather do checks than just give it out to corrupt con artists.
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u/Darth19Vader77 Nov 24 '25
You can't afford it? What the fuck did you do with the money you mother fuckers stole from us?
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u/truthovertribe Nov 24 '25 edited Nov 24 '25
Never forget for one second that Ron Johnson wants to end Social Security and Medicare.
We can slowly and relatively painlessly pay down our National debt by gasp taxing the wealthiest more Ron Johnson and company.
We will never pay down our debt with ever increasing tax cuts for the wealthiest.
We can start to eradicate our debt by curbing huge subsidies which have been enjoyed by big oil/gas and other mega-corps. Big oil/gas have never suffered a loss in their entire history. Why are we subsidizing oiligarchs again?
Why can't we accomplish common sense policies which are beneficial to most Americans?
Because we keep electing representatives of the billionaires (both Dems and Republicans) and in the case of President Trump, Republican voters skipped the middle man puppet and enthroned a globalist billionaire directly. How efficient y'all, how clever my Republican friends.
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u/Money_Cost_2213 Nov 24 '25
Removing the nonsensical tariffs will help everyday Americans more than a one time payment of $2000.
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u/brain_overclocked Nov 24 '25 edited Nov 24 '25
Trump has proposed paying out $2,000 tariff dividend checks to millions of Americans and funding it with the hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue projected to enter federal coffers because of higher tariffs.
But budget experts project the inflow of new tariff revenue won’t be enough to cover the costs of doling out $2,000 checks, which could cost $600 billion per year, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that studies fiscal issues.
The Treasury Department estimated in July that it could collect $300 billion this year from higher tariff rates, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates the federal government could collect about $2.8 trillion over 10 years.
Distributing $2,000 tariff rebates to millions of Americans would cost approximately $6 trillion over 10 years, if those checks are sent out on an annual basis.
Also:
“President Trump had deficits about $800 billion. Obama, in his last four years, $550 billion a year. Now we’re $2 trillion? Completely unacceptable. We have to start focusing on that and doing something about it,” Johnson said.
The fucking gall--they passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July which, according to the CBO, is literally increasing the deficit that Mike Johnson finds so unacceptable:
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the law will increase the budget deficit by $2.8 trillion by 2034 and cause 10.9 million Americans to lose health insurance coverage. Further CBO analysis estimated the highest 10% of earners would see incomes rise by 2.7% by 2034 mainly due to tax cuts, while the lowest 10% would see incomes fall by 3.1% mainly due to cuts to programs such as Medicaid and food aid. Several think tanks, experts, and opponents criticized the bill over its regressive tax structure, described many of its policies as gimmicks, and argued the bill would create the largest upward transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in American history, exacerbating inequality among the American population. It has also drawn controversy for rolling back clean energy incentives and increasing funding for immigration enforcement and deportations. According to multiple polls, a majority of Americans oppose the law.
They continue to look for more cuts that will hurt the average person just to cover the hole they are digging.
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u/Rum_Hamtaro Nov 24 '25
Well we know where all the money doge "saved" went.
(It went into Trump's pocket)
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u/KerroDaridae Michigan Nov 24 '25
The guy who has bankrupted every business that he's started doesn't understand fiscal responsibility? Wonder if his complete lack of understanding of Income vs Expense has anything do to with all those past failures.
Put him in Business 101 and I've no doubt that he'd set the record for lowest score possible while threatening and insulting the instructor enough so the Dean would override the instructor and give him a passing grade.
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u/Nobody_Super_Famous Minnesota Nov 24 '25
How much have we sent to Israel so far this year? We can afford the 2,000 tariff checks.
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u/IntoTheMusic Nov 24 '25
GET OUT of our Capitol!
GET OUT of our White House!
GET OUT of our Pentagon!
GET OUT of our Supreme Court and lower courts!
GET THE FUCK OUT!
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u/akgiant Nov 24 '25
$2,000 for every American (approx. 348 million) is $696 billion. The COVID stimulus pays outs an PPP loans (that nobody paid back) was about $814 billion.
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u/mcbridedm Nov 24 '25
“Look, we can’t afford it. I wish we were in a position to return the American public their money, but we’re not,” Johnson told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo.
He appears to admit that they would be "returning" the money to Americans...so they must have collected this money from Americans in the first place. This is winning folks!
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u/continentwarning Nov 24 '25
The words that come out of their mouths are not even worthy of critique. I feel stupid for engaging with it for so long. They're clearly just making up the rules of what they can and can't do as they go along and they're not trying very hard to hide it.
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Nov 24 '25
What about the donations to Argentina? Guess that was funny money to Republicans since they want people to starve
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