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 2 months 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 77 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] RobMyBot@lemmy.ml 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 24 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

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

[–] khepri@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months 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.

[–] blattrules@lemmy.world 89 points 2 months 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 2 months 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 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

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

[–] ganryuu@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You're reaching a lot in your "theory" trying to attribute logic (however few of it) to the ramblings of a delusional, unintelligent and dementia riddled old man. I do not believe for a second that there's any logic other than "big number make me feel good".

And the deception part would require him to understand and accept that he was wrong, which he's shown to be completely unable to do numerous times.

[–] frazw@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Well maybe I am, but I also think there is a tendancy to dismiss a lot of trump's behaviour as delusional, or dumb when I see it as intentional malice with moments of dementia woven in.

I do think he is not very bright, but not so dumb as many want to believe. It feels good to think of him as dumb, but the fact of the matter is he convinced tens of millions of people to vote for him. He has steam rollered the USA and imposed his will. He is clever enough to have understood his to manipulate the public masterfully up to his second election, despite being a convicted felon by that point. To say he is stupid and somehow lucked his way into all of that is not impossible but improbable. I think his issue now is that he underestimated how the public would respond as he got positive reinforcement for many years even when doing harmful things because of his blind support from MAGA. He underestimated how much they would put up with.

It is entirely possible that he pulled the number out of the air but I don't think that's how he works. Some of what he says is rooted in a truth that he then distorts and exaggerates to serve him, which is why I think the number comes from his deliberate misunderstanding than from nowhere.

The deception doesn't require him to accept he was wrong. It requires mental gymnastics. Something he has proven to be an Olympic gold medalist at.

Just to be clear I am not defending him I am advising caution. Writing him off as stupid means you are in some way excusing his actions as being accidental and leads to the "of its just trump being trump" rhetoric that has let him get away with so much. He is a dangerous, dangerous man. I can't decide if he believes the things he says or simply wants you to believe the things he says. I lean towards the latter.

As I wrote this I am reminded of Boris Johnson who is someone who spent a great deal of time convincing the UK public he was a harmless, likeable idiot. He was not. He was an intelligent, deceptive man who wore his public image like a mask to hide his nefarious intent. Boris is not trump of course, but I see Boris as a cautionary tale and it makes me view Trump differently than I perhaps would if Boris had not existed.

Fully accept I may be wrong about all of this, but just want to share my opinion.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

The man who means what he says always needs interpretation.

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago

he looks at

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

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[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It's likely one part of a statistic he heard somewhere. The only part that registered was the number.

[–] thagoat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 2 months 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 11 points 2 months ago

I agree, but that fraction is 3/2 🤣

[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

And it'll work like a charm for all the MAGAts.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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 2 months ago

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

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago (4 children)

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

[–] Typhoon@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago

How much does one hospital trip cost?

How much does food for a year cost?

$2000 is nothing.

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

2+5 =7 4+7 =11

7/11?

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (4 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?

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[–] mean_bean279@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago
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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months 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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[–] Pulsar@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)

This is easy to fix. Just increase tariffs.

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

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

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[–] redlemace@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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

[–] rayyy@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months 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.

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[–] pinheadednightmare@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months 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 2 months ago

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

[–] QuantumTickle@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 months 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, ..."

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

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

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Putting his age in there really got my hopes up for a second.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months 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. 😉

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months 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.

Idk what he's trying to distract from at this point.

Do American idiots care more about raising taxes for their rulers, or holding child rapists accountable for raping kids?

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Trump 79, struggles to stay alive…

[–] fittedsyllabi@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Release the Epstein Files!

[–] nao@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

You're saying he isn't as smart as he said he was?

[–] Leonyx@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 2 months ago

I'll believe it when I see it.

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