this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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As the Tax Foundation’s Erica York quickly pointed out, about 150 million people make less than $100,000. She noted that sending each of them a $2,000 check would cost $300 billion, and Trump’s tariffs are only projected to raise $217 billion annually.

Archive article: https://archive.is/Ih7jO

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[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 129 points 1 day ago (3 children)

And tariffs are what the consumer pays, so we'd only be getting back what we already paid in.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 79 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's actually a bit more assuming wealthy people spend more on consumption than poorer people, and therefore also pay more import tariffs. If the tax credit is distributed to everyone equally, then poorer people get more than they spent.

Problem is, i really really doubt Trump is ever gonna help the people at all. He's probably gonna say it a thousand times so his republican voters can say "he's the good guy", then he's gonna deliver the thinnest of excuses for why he can't actually do it and blame somebody else for it.

[–] RobMyBot@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Zink@programming.dev 1 points 21 hours ago

The grift is more consistent and predictable than the laws of thermodynamics!

[–] ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Plot twist: the dumbest wealth-redistribution plan in history.

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

And dummies will eat it up, thinking he's paying them with money gained from "other" sources.

[–] khepri@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

If that. I'd say my expenses this year have for sure gone up by a total of more than 2k, although I respect that much of that ended up in the pockets of our sacred shareholders and CEOs and their holy quest for quarterly growth, not directly tariffs.

[–] rayyy@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Seems math and science are too woke for this regime.
Dr. Oz said Americans could lose '135 Billion Pounds' with the proposed lower price of weight loss drugs.

[–] Uruanna@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Remind me what's the conversion rate from pound to dollar? Probably the right ballpark.

[–] redlemace@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

He ain't gonna follow through so what does it matter it doesn't add up ???

[–] blattrules@lemmy.world 88 points 1 day ago (2 children)

He struggles with basic math in general, not just on this matter. He’s still insisting that he’s going to bring drug prices down 1000%, months after he started saying that. He struggles with basically anything actually.

[–] frazw@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (4 children)

When he says he's going to reduce drugs by thousands of percent, I think he looks at the price of drug x in, for example, Germany and sees a price of $10 then he looks at the price in the USA of $160. So the USA price is 1600% of the Germany price.

He claims to reduce them to the Germany price, and then screws up on how percentages work and says he'll reduce it by 1600%, instead of what he should say, which is reducing it by 94%.

So that's how I understand the comments he makes. Either way he's full of shit and won't actually reduce them at all, but I think I get why he thinks he is correct in stating percentages in the thousands.

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don't "sane wash" the ravings of a mad man.

[–] frazw@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I'm not sane washing. I believe it's how he sees it and now he's probably been told that's not how it works, he continues to use this method as a way to make the number bigger. So it crosses from idiocy to deliberate deception. IMO

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The man who means what he says always needs interpretation.

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago

he looks at

well I think you lost me there. I doubt he looks at fucking anything

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[–] chunes@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I remember having to demonstrate basic arithmetic skills to get a job in a call center. It seems like maybe the president of the U.S. should at least have to take the same test I did

[–] ILoveUnions@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Put every presidential wanna be on stand live broadcast and feed them basic constitution, math, and science questions. Hell every congressional wannabe

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

This assumes this is an annual thing and not a one-time stunt.

I think this is a potential component in a '2025 sucks to make 2026 look better'.

Imagine that they use part of the tariff revenue over 18 months to issue a check roughly that size right smack dab in the middle of midterm campaign season. Maybe also implementing one of those random tariff pauses, say, 90 days covering the tail end of election season to get prices to maybe come down. If there's one thing they should have learned is that the average person sincerely loves getting their own money back without interest and views it as a 'nice bonus', like they do every April.

So they drive prices up in 2025, then use some of that to 'stimulus' the voters as they implement pricing relief...

I think everything is coming together for them to win the midterms. People have already forgotten about USAID and similar, and maybe associate that more with Musk than Trump. People are pissed about the inflation but this would likely erase that concern particularly if they ease up for election season. They endangered people by taking away SNAP, but democrats caved and the Republicans have a chance to make short term healthcare extension and vindicate their 'democrats caused this by being stubborn' narrative. Further, since open enrollment closed and it's "too late", one thing I heard floated was implementing the subsidy as a cash rebate to those that would have benefited, and just like this refund here, that goes even further than reducing the costs in the minds of the voters. If they want a little boost they can also do things like throw RFK Jr. under the bus and install a vaguely credible person in his position, to illustrate they can improve things.

[–] Pulsar@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This is easy to fix. Just increase tariffs.

[–] mrunicornman@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"We leave this trivial exercise to the reader" or whatever they write in maths books.

the exercise:

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 2 points 1 day ago

Quick, give this guy a Nobel prize in economics!

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (4 children)

What’s 2k going to do? It’s a short term fix. How about we have a long term solution?

the paradoxy of tariffs:

they're at the same time high enough that the people suffer paying them,

but at the same time, if people got the money back they paid previously, suddenly everybody complains it's so minisculely little that it doesn't help anyone and nobody can buy anything with it.

[–] mean_bean279@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago
[–] Typhoon@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago

How much does one hospital trip cost?

How much does food for a year cost?

$2000 is nothing.

[–] lando55@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] WindyRebel@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

2+5 =7 4+7 =11

7/11?

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

That’s not a long term solution. We’ll get “Just Dance” Vance, who will continue the project and continue dancing through 2028. The d’s need to get their shit together, and so far my expectations are buried underground.

Has politics always been this awful or am I tuning in because it’s so especially bad?

[–] lando55@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's not a long term solution.

I disagree with this assessment, and I'll tell you why: for reasons beyond my comprehension, DJT's loyalists are attracted to his charisma and fabricated image of business acumen and machismo.

GOP party leadership has used this to their advantage, either with or without his knowledge, to push their own agenda while using POTUS as a lightning rod for the media and the plurality of voters who would never elect him to public office.

Vance has always been divisive even among DJT's most ardent supporters. Even if somehow elevated to the position of POTUS in the next few years, he'll never achieve the same level of party unity and public support as his predecessor.

tldr: Trump is an idiot, but he's a useful idiot. Vance is just an idiot.

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In an authoritarian regime, popularity isn’t important. Vance will do whatever he’s told.

[–] lando55@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

I beg to differ, if DJT dropped dead tomorrow I don't think Vance could carry the GOP

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[–] thagoat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 day ago (2 children)

"Here ya go, simpletons. Here's a fraction of your own money back. I'm the greatest person to have ever drawn breath, praise me for my stable genius."

[–] lemming741@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

I agree, but that fraction is 3/2 🤣

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[–] fittedsyllabi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Release the Epstein Files!

[–] MourningDove@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He struggles with basic English.

[–] IndridCold@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 day ago

He struggles with basic thought. The old jar of mayonnaise in the back of my fridge is more sentient then Trump.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

“The $2,000 dividend could come in lots of forms, in lots of ways,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on ABC News on Sunday.

“It could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing on the president’s agenda. You know, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security,” the Treasury Secretary added.

The only time Social Security income is taxed, is if you're pulling in investment money or a significant "second job"...

No one who needs the 2k is paying tax on social security...

And cutting the tax on it only helps the wealthy

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

"In many ways" signals to me that he's just going to say people have been paid but nobody is actually getting anything.

Of course, his base will lap his bullshit up and praise how generous and honest he is.

[–] khepri@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

It means he knows nothing and there's no actual plan. Like always, Trump is just gonna Trump and it's up to his circle of interpretivite dementia experts and pill grifters as to what he actually means.

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[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Well they paid $2000 extra in tariffs so they're just getting it back.

[–] pinheadednightmare@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fuck these checks, stop taxing us so god damn much and making everything so fucking expensive. Let us enjoy life for fucks sake…

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 day ago

But it isn't just taxes it's fucking the elite wanting every drop of money they can squeeze from us.

[–] Corridor8031@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

ngl but this atleast is some kind of wealth redisturbution, despite how stupid it all is.

rather this than handing it straight up to the billionairs directly, like usually

[–] III@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Billionaires only getting $300 billion to share amongst them? Don't make me laugh. They don't need pocket change. Come back to me when you are distributing $300 billion PER billionaire.

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Wow, someone else maths!

From another thread:

So far, there has been $200B collected in tariffs as of September. Some estimates are saying $300B by end of year.

https://www.crfb.org/blogs/tariff-revenue-soars-fy-2025-amid-legal-uncertainty

The current estimated US population is 340 million.

https://www.census.gov/popclock/

Take off 10% for "the wealthy", that leaves 306,000,000.

I can't imagine Trump giving $2,000 to kids, so knock off anyone under 18, that's another 73 million off the list.

https://datacenter.aecf.org/data/tables/101-child-population-by-age-group#detailed/1/any/false/1096,2545,1095,2048,574,1729,37,871,870,573/62,63,64,6,4693/419,420

So round about 233,000,000 people getting $2,000 checks?

$466 billion. Oops. Hey Donnie, you're short somewhere between $166 and $266 billion.

So how much COULD people get?

$200B / 233M = $858.37
$300B / 233M = $1,287.55

Not awful, until you realize that's how much these taxes soaked you for in the first place. 😉

[–] QuantumTickle@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 day ago

When articles mention X, they immediately follow up that it used to be called Twitter. I hope articles start dropping his age every time they mention Trump.

"Trump, 79, did a thing today. Trump, who was born when most people thought cigarettes were healthy, ..."

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