A prominent Republican senator broke with President Donald Trump after rebuking him on his proposal to issue Americans $2,000 checks, going as far as to compare him unfavorably with former President Barack Obama.
“Look, we can’t afford it. I wish we were in a position to return the American public their money, but we’re not,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said, speaking on with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, according to Fox 8 on Monday.
“We’ll have at least a $2 trillion deficit this year. President Trump had deficits about $800 billion. Obama, in his last four years, $550 billion a year. Now we’re $2 trillion? Completely unacceptable.”
Trump first floated the idea of issuing Americans direct checks in early November, though he didn’t offer a specific dollar amount, instead suggesting the money could be redirected from what Democratic lawmakers were pushing to be spent on extending Obamacare subsidies. At a total of around $125 billion, the proposed funding for the subsidies, split up between the roughly 260 million American adults, would amount to about $481 per person.
Trump has since put a price tag on the proposal: $2,000 checks per American adult, with funds pulled from the United States’ new tariff revenue. And while Trump’s own Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, immediately contradicted Trump’s plan, the president has since doubled down on the proposal, demanding Congress rush the $2,000 checks to Americans last week.
Trump’s plan has raised eyebrows, and perhaps none more so than Johnson, who, as a member of the Senate Budget Committee and Senate Finance Committee, said sending out a multi-billion-dollar payout to Americans was not in the cards amid the United States’ staggering $38.3 trillion in debt.
“We have to start focusing on that and doing something about it,” Johnson said.