Kevin Hassett, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, said Thursday that since the money would have been spent by the government anyway, having it spent by consumers would be a wash. Biden and Trump’s stimulus checks during the pandemic were deficit-financed, which can be more inflationary.
Fishback supports sending out checks, rather than using all the money to reduce the deficit, because it would encourage Americans to seek out wasteful government spending “in their communities, and report it to DOGE.”.
In November, John DiIulio Jr., a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in an essay for the Brookings Institution that “eliminating the entire federal civilian workforce would leave in place about 95 per cent of all federal spending and the $34 trillion national debt.’’.
And sending out a round of checks — similar to the stimulus payments distributed by Trump and then President Joe Biden during the pandemic — could fuel inflation, economists warn, though White House officials dismiss that concern.
With the annual budget deficit at $1.8 trillion last year and Trump proposing extensive tax cuts, there will also be significant pressure to use all the savings to reduce that deficit, rather than pass on part of it.
