Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just revealed this morning a possible income limit on the $2,000 tariff checks that President Trump wants to give people, in light of the criticism that it may not be the best thing to do for the country.
Here’s what Bessent said:
I’ve seen this called a ‘redistribution of wealth’ online, and if this were normal American taxpayer dollars I’d have no problem with that label. But since this is tariff revenue, raised from other countries, how is it a redistribution of wealth? If you want to say it isn’t fair to exclude higher incomes from the tariff revenue checks, that’s fine. But calling it a redistribution doesn’t make sense to me given where it comes from.
As far as the idea that it isn’t the best thing for the country, fiscally speaking, I completely understand that too. It really isn’t. But I believe Trump is gracious and wants to celebrate the money he’s bringing into the country by sharing some of it with the people. Given that it’s not originally taxpayer money, I don’t have a huge problem with that.
UPDATE: Some commenters pointed out that tariffs are normally paid by the taxpayer, and that is absolutely true. At least in most cases where the company doesn’t eat it. I’ve even said this many times in the past, but I guess brain hadn’t completely woken up yet. So yeah, I get why it’s being called a redistribution of wealth now. My bad.