At least one Republican senator has said that the U.S. government cannot afford a Trump administration proposal to send out $2,000 tariff-derived rebate payments.
“If we’re bringing in revenue through the tariffs, that ought to be applied to reduce the deficit, not just to make cash payments to Americans,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo on Monday.
Bartiromo then told him: “It sounds like you would vote ‘no’ in terms of $2,000 checks going to individuals.”
He added that “we can’t afford it” and that he wishes the U.S. government was “in a position to return the American public their money, but we’re not.”
“We’ll have at least a $2 trillion deficit this year,” Johnson also said, adding that “we have to start focusing on that and doing something about it,” referring to the national debt.
The Treasury Department said that as of Tuesday, the federal government has a $38.3 trillion national debt. As of the current fiscal year, meanwhile, the United States has spent around $284 billion more than it has collected so far, it said.
“We are on borrowed time here,” Johnson said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said this past week that he wants to see more revenue from the Trump administration’s tariffs to reduce the size of the national deficit before sending out any tariff-related dividend payments.
“Obviously, I think the amount of money coming in from the tariffs is considered to be substantial at this point and hopefully can be put to a useful purpose. Again, in my view, one of which would be repaying the debt,” he told reporters on Nov. 18.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and National Economic Council head Kevin Hassett have both said that Congress would need to pass a measure before any tariff-related payments are sent.
President Donald Trump, who floated the idea on Truth Social earlier this month, has signaled that people who are middle- or low-income would get the payments. The payments may also go out by mid-2026, he has said.
Earlier this month, the Treasury secretary also said in an interview that people making below a certain amount would be eligible, noting that families who earn $100,000 or less per year will likely be able to get the payments.
Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a Fox News interview that aired Monday that Trump’s proposal for a $2,000 rebate is still being worked out, while adding that he believes that the Supreme Court will likely back the Trump administration on tariffs.
Trump has continued to tout his tariff policies, saying that more businesses will be paying import taxes as inventories run out. In turn, that will create more revenue for the federal government, he said.
“Soon Tariffs will be paid on everything they apply to, without avoidance, and the amounts payable to the USA will SKYROCKET, over and above the already historic levels of dollars received. These payments will be RECORD SETTING, and put our Nation on a new and unprecedented course,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Nov. 24.
It comes as the Congressional Budget Office revised its revenue estimate. The tariffs, it said in an update this past week, may generate around $3 trillion over the next 11 years if the tariff policies are kept by the current presidential administration and future ones.
Previously, the nonpartisan office estimated that the tariffs would bring in $4 trillion over that time period.
