Despite the United States surpassing $40 trillion in national debt and running a deficit of over $1.8 trillion, Donald Trump promised to send every adult American a $5,000 check if they vote to keep Republicans in control after the midterms. Those checks would cost the nation $1.3 trillion and would go to billionaires, corporate executives, and members of Congress–the very people who have made life such a struggle for working-class Americans.
It is a terrible idea, saved only by the fact that Congress is unlikely to implement it, and Trump has lied about checks numerous times before, including promises of $5,000 DOGE checks and $2,000 tariff dividend checks that never materialized. DOGE ended up costing the country money instead of saving it any, and the tariffs were illegal and not paid for by other countries. You and I paid them, and then corporations got the refund.
Why is Trump so desperate to try to buy the midterms with bribes? Because this administration has been a colossal failure that ruined the economy, worsened the struggles millions of Americans are facing, and Trump’s approval rating is in the mid to low 30s depending on the poll. Recent Economist polling finds only four states with a net positive approval rating for Trump: Idaho, Wyoming, West Virginia, and North Dakota. The top issue in all these surveys is the economy. The economy is not doing well.
The price of diesel has soared to the highest level ever recorded by AAA, and currently sits at $6.20 a gallon. Diesel is what powers transportation. When its costs rise, so does the cost of goods. Trump has continued to push through new tariffs every time the previous batch was declared illegal, and the war in Iran has been escalating once again.
Inflation remains elevated at 3.4%, well above the Fed’s 2% target, and wage gains are the lowest they’ve been in five years. That has resulted in real wage gains, wage gains adjusted for inflation, being negative for five months straight. Buying power is decreasing. Paychecks are shrinking. Voters feel this in many ways. Ground beef is the most expensive it has ever been. Home electricity is as well. Employer-sponsored healthcare has reached a record high, and ACA deductibles had their largest one-year increase. Gas is over $4.30 a gallon. The impact is serious. Credit card and household debt are at historic highs.
This is why Trump is desperate and pushing his check scheme once again.
Of course, if Republicans wanted to actually help people, there is a much simpler solution. Increase the federal minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2030. It would give over 40 million Americans a raise, with the average increase at $8,000. That wouldn’t be a one-time check. It would be how much more those workers earn year after year.
Want a smaller government? The higher minimum wage would reduce federal spending by over $100 billion. Want to address federal revenue without raising taxes? The higher minimum wage would increase revenue by almost $70 billion without a single tax increase. It would reduce poverty. It would help people buy housing and afford healthcare. It would fundamentally transform the U.S. economy for the better and increase prosperity, with negligible effects on jobs and inflation. That is the benefit of phasing in a change over years instead of dropping over $1 trillion on the nation in an instant and taking on significantly more debt to pay for it.
But Republicans will never do that. Because they don’t work for the people. They work for corporations and billionaires. Corporations are hitting record profits, and so much wealth is moving from the bottom to the top that the top 1% holds as much wealth as the bottom 90%. That is who Republicans work for, and they consider those results a success.
When you don’t actually want to help people, don’t actually want to address hardship, struggle, and poverty, then you resort to gimmicks and lies. You say other countries will pay for tariffs when American consumers actually do. You say you can cut trillions from the government and give the money back to the people, but the deficit keeps increasing. You say you’ll send checks to every American, but you never do. When all of that fails, you fearmonger about immigrants, call your opponents communists, and stir up fake culture war nonsense. It's all to distract from how little is actually accomplished.
The Republican-led House of Representatives has worked in DC for just 81 days this year. 81 days. The House is on recess right now, won’t return until September 14th, and then they’ll work just four days before leaving again until November 9th. We pay these people to work on our problems. They earn $174,000, plus $79 a day for food and incidentals, and up to $258 per day for their DC housing, plus full staff and gold-level healthcare, of which taxpayers cover 75% of the cost. They receive a pension for the rest of their lives once they leave office. And they’re doing nothing to earn it.
Instead of addressing the nation’s problems, this administration has called the affordability crisis a hoax and labeled those complaining about how expensive life has become “malcontents”. They ignore and mock the difficulties that they’ve created and then lie and tell us the economy is roaring when it has been driven into the ground.
The only way to get these types of politicians to listen is to vote as many of them out of office as we can. Show them that we won’t put up with their incompetence, corruption, and greed. Vote in November. Get someone else to vote. It is time to remind Congress who they work for.
Voters Asked About Rent. They Cried "Socialist."
Last November, Zohran Mamdani won the election to become New York City’s next mayor. The fearmongering was immediate. New York City had elected a Democratic Socialist. Societal collapse was imminent.