Free Money
There’s no such thing as free money, of course. But that’s what it feels like when your benevolent government issues you a check. And, of course, that’s what they want you to think.
When you get a big income tax refund, for example. You like getting free money—until you realize it’s really your money that you overpaid to the government…and while the government had its hands on it, you not only did not have access to it, but you did not earn interest on it. They still win.
Now comes the idea of $2,000 per person checks tied to tariff revenue. It’s supposed to not go to the rich…but as always, the devil is in the details of what qualifies as “rich” and “not rich”.
A few concerns with this, however. First is that the very question of the legality of the tariffs is before the Supreme Court. If they determine any of the tariffs are not legal, the money would have to be returned to the foreign party that paid it. Harder to do if you’ve already spent that money in checks to citizens.
Then there’s the evidence that stimulus checks like this actually lead to greater inflation…certainly not something we need.
Some also note that some of the spending in the reconciliation law was covered by tariff revenue—hard to spend the same money twice.
And then there’s the rapidly increasing federal deficit; why not use this windfall to pay that down?
If a check shows up at my house, you bet I’m going to cash it. But it’s a silly idea, one I’m afraid is tied far more to politics than good policy. Then again, that’s how all sides apparently make decisions, these days in particular.
