Can a $1.2 trillion giveaway become a fiscal bargain?

The useful part

citizens is being widely criticized as fiscally unsound, grossly irresponsible, a cynical vote-buying scheme, and another political promise that will never come to fruition. Trump's plan, as he presented it in just a couple of throwaway sentences at the Republican Midterm National Convention in Dallas last week, is indeed all those things. An unprecedented economic boom or dramatic revenue surge cannot be assumed in advance.

How it works

• It amounts to a Keynesian-style attempt to stimulate the economy temporarily by making people feel richer than they are, to be followed by the usual consequences of such fiscal monkeyshines: violent...
• What if congressional leaders were to respond to the president's idea as a starting point for negotiations?
• The tax cut would be payable immediately upon enactment and designated as refundable to all U.S.

Details worth keeping

President Trump's call for a $5,000 "dividend" payment to all adult U.S. Agree with the president to pass a one-time tax cut of $5,000 for the 2027 fiscal year, paired with a permanent spending cap set at the 2019, pre-COVID-19 level and mandatory 2% additional reductions in the spending cap each year through 2040. Republicans would make a simple deal with the American people: $5,000 today for every adult citizen, in exchange for serious, desperately needed cuts in federal spending beginning in the next fiscal year and continuing through the next decade.