Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri is back to his angry Republican populist cosplay, this time backing President Donald Trump’s latest half-baked idea: sending millions of Americans checks that would be funded by tariff revenues. The lawmaker has introduced legislation to make that a reality— all while railing against the idea that “rich” Democrats might get those checks, as if that’s the real injustice buried in this mess.
“Well, you wouldn’t give it to everybody, you’d give it to the working people,” Hawley said on Trump loyalist Steve Bannon’s podcast. “You’d give it to our people. I mean, you know, the rich people don’t need it … what I mean by that is all those Democrat donors of Wall Street, all these hedge fund guys, who all hate the tariffs, by the way.”
Hawley’s American Worker Rebate Act would send $600 to every American, with income caps at $75,000 for single filers and $150,000 for those who file jointly.
As I’ve said before, sending checks to taxpayers is smart politics. It’s baffling that Democrats insist on hiding their help inside the tax code, turning simple wins into complicated accounting exercises. That kind of political timidity has cost the party respect and trust.
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Trump, of course, originally pitched tariffs as a way to reduce the national debt. He claimed foreign countries would be footing the bill, and that tariff revenue would help balance the books. Instead, Americans got higher prices on everything from clothes to cars—with worse still to come—and the debt ballooned by trillions. But no one actually cares about the national debt, and least of all the Republicans who pretend to. Now Hawley wants to repackage that fallout as free money and act like he’s doing people a favor.
Amazingly, Hawley’s math actually checks out. At $150 billion in tariff receipts, divided across the roughly 76% of the population that would qualify, the result is about $607 per person. So $600 fits the math. But will an extra $50 a month move the needle as living costs continue to skyrocket? Maybe on the fringes. But it doesn’t come close to offsetting the economic damage of Trump’s chaotic tariffs and his plan to deport the agricultural workforce keeping food prices stable.
And that performative outrage over rich people getting checks? Please. The entire point of Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill, which Hawley backed, was to shovel massive tax cuts to the wealthy at everyone else’s expense. As journalist Judd Legum pointed out, using budget modeling from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Americans making $51,000 to $93,000 get an average tax cut of around $845. Those making under $50,000—the folks Hawley pretends to champion—will now pay $700 to $1,000 more in taxes. Even with the proposed rebate, they’re still underwater.
And as for those terrible rich people who dared to vote for Democrats—the ones Hawley insists shouldn’t get a dime? They’re walking away with tax cuts ranging between $6,000 and $390,000. So yeah, they don’t need a piddly $600 check. Hawley and his Dear Leader Trump already made sure they were more than taken care of.
If Hawley cared about fairness, he would’ve made this argument when Trump’s tax bill passed—when wealthy, blue-state Americans got the real benefits, and poor red-state Americans got the shaft. But of course, that would’ve meant opposing Trump. Instead, Hawley stayed loyal.
And his reward? Trump called him “a second-tier senator” for a separate bill that would ban Congress members, the president, and vice president from stock trading.
Oh well.