Trump’s stimulus check promises: What happened to the DOGE dividend, Tariff payment and ACA savings?
Trump made some big promises during the first year of his second term saying he would send wads of cash directly to Americans. But where is the money?
President Donald Trump returned to the White House after a four-year absence on a platform that he would carry out the largest deportation in U.S. history and more importantly for many American consumers, improve affordability.
The first proposal has caused unrest in communities across the nation through the heavy-handedness by which it has been conducted, perhaps most notably in Minneapolis. The second, while he claims to have done a great job with the economy, the American public in surveys is saying the opposite.
Even while Trump said things were getting better, he offered plans to compensate American with direct payments from money the federal government was collecting or saving through his administration’s actions.
He promised $5,000 DOGE dividend checks to “tax-paying households,” $2,000 dividend payments from tariff revenues and proposed giving Americans direct payments of an unspecified amount to pay for health insurance to replace Obamacare. But no payments have gone out yet. So, that begs the question, where is the money?
Americans still waiting for Trump’s stimulus checks
The simple answer is that, at least for now, none of that money will be showing up in Americans’ bank accounts or as checks in the mail.
That’s because DOGE failed to make anywhere near the massive $2 trillion dollars in savings that it promised and upon which the $5,000 dividend amount was calculated. While some of the people put in place by the agency’s head, Elon Musk, remain in government employment, DOGE was quietly disbanded ahead of schedule after the tech billionaire fell out with Trump.
The tariffs didn’t manage to bring in even enough to cover the $300 billion price tag for the $2,000 payments. Furthermore the U.S. Supreme Court just struck down those sweeping tariffs which means that the federal government could potentially have to refund the tens of billions that it has already collected.
As for the direct payments instead of Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, well that plan hasn’t gotten off the ground yet. Despite the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, essentially over Democrats trying to get ACA subsidies extended and restore Medicaid funding, no deal was reached.
The result was healthcare premiums skyrocketing at the beginning of the year and there is no fix in sight. Trump has presented his “Great Healthcare Plan” but it is light on detailed substance and will have a hard slog in Congress.
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