Trump proposed ‘DOGE checks’ in February; now, Senator Josh Hawley is talking up the idea of ‘tariff rebate checks.’
A hallmark of this era is that as soon as there’s even a remote chance that the U.S. government might collect more money than it expected to, Republicans propose ways to get it out the door as quickly as possible.
Back on February 19 , Trump boasted that that DOGE was going to save so much money that the savings would be returned to taxpayers in the form of “DOGE checks.”
“They’re saving billions and billions of dollars every single day, and there’s even under consideration a new concept where we give 20 percent of the DOGE savings to American citizens, and 20 percent goes to paying down the debt, because the numbers are incredible,” Trump said during his address at Saudi Arabia’s annual investment conference, held in Miami Beach. (By the way, does anyone else find it unseemly that the current president of the United States spoke at a conference of the Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund?)
DOGE’s website says it has accumulated $199 billion in savings for taxpayers. That’s a nice amount, but the current deficit so far this year, as of the end of June, is $1.27 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office projected a $1.9 trillion deficit for this fiscal year. By no stretch of the imagination does the U.S. government have extra money lying around.
The current U.S. national debt is $36.7 trillion.
There’s a sliver of good news: Because of the tariffs enacted during the first six months of the second Trump administration, tariff revenue is significantly higher than previously projected. But don’t worry, America! Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri is here to make sure that the money goes out the door in the form of “rebate checks” as soon as it comes in:
Today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the American Worker Rebate Act, legislation that would send rebate checks to working Americans following the historic revenue accrued through President Trump’s tariff policy.
“Americans deserve a tax rebate after four years of Biden policies that have devastated families’ savings and livelihoods. Like President Trump proposed, my legislation would allow hard-working Americans to benefit from the wealth that Trump’s tariffs are returning to this country,” Senator Hawley said.
Senator Hawley announced this legislation last week after President Trump voiced support for this policy when he discussed record-breaking tariff revenue.
The United States now has record monthly tariff revenue, which nearly reached $30 billion in June. Several projections suggest the United States could see over $150 billion in tariff revenue in 2025 alone.
Tariffs on goods coming into the country are being paid by importers, who in many cases will compensate this additional cost by raising the prices of the imported goods. So, the “devastated families’ savings and livelihoods” that Hawley laments were indeed harmed by the Biden administration’s policies, but the harm was exacerbated by these tariffs.