Washington finally found some spending it doesn’t like: Your $5,000

There are few things more entertaining than watching Washington discover fiscal responsibility.

President Trump stood up at the Republican midterm convention and dropped a grenade into the campaign: If Republicans hold the House and Senate, he says he wants to issue a $5,000 dividend to every adult American citizen.

Five thousand dollars.

You could almost hear calculators flying off desks all over Washington.

Suddenly everybody is worried about spending. Suddenly the deficit matters. Suddenly inflation matters. Suddenly Republicans who have watched Washington shovel money into programs, bureaucracies and assorted black holes for decades are clutching their pearls because somebody suggested sending some money back to the people who live here.

Princess Diana joined me on Rush Hour, and she was having entirely too much fun watching the reaction.

Politico was already reporting “instant GOP critics.” The Hill was talking about blowback. The estimates started flying: roughly $1.2 trillion. Congressional approval would be required. The national debt is above $40 trillion.

All legitimate questions. And I asked Diana the obvious one myself: What about the deficit?

I don’t think conservatives should stop asking that question just because Donald Trump is the guy proposing the spending. If we believe deficits matter on Tuesday, they should still matter on Wednesday.

But Diana made an interesting argument.

Trump isn’t presenting this as another government benefit. He’s presenting it as a dividend—a portion of new revenue and investment coming into the United States being returned directly to American citizens.

Her comparison was Alaska, where residents can receive an annual dividend connected to the state’s oil wealth. Her argument was basically: Washington never seems particularly troubled when the money is traveling in one direction—away from you. Let somebody suggest reversing the flow and suddenly the accountants arrive.

That part made me laugh because it is absolutely true.

Washington can spend a trillion dollars and make it sound like somebody ordered lunch.

Tell Americans they might get $5,000 and suddenly: HAVE YOU PEOPLE HEARD ABOUT THE NATIONAL DEBT?

Yes. We have. We’ve been mentioning it for years. Nice of you to join us.

Trump understands something about politics that his opponents still seem determined not to understand: People don’t experience government through a Congressional Budget Office spreadsheet. They experience it at the grocery store, the gas pump, the doctor’s office and when the credit-card bill arrives.

And $5,000 is real money.

Two adults in a household? That’s $10,000.

You can oppose the idea. You can argue it would be inflationary. You can demand to see exactly where the money comes from. In fact, conservatives ought to demand those answers before Congress writes a check.

But politically?

Good luck running against it.

Imagine the campaign ad: TRUMP: I want to give you $5,000.

WASHINGTON: We simply cannot allow this kind of reckless behavior.

That’s a tough 30 seconds to answer.

And Trump wasn’t finished.

During the same conversation, we got into his riffs from the convention, including his extended bit about Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico and his “Beat Meat” campaign.

Yes.

“Beat Meat.”

I am not explaining the joke. If you need me to explain the joke, you are probably a better person than I am.

The Huffington Post was sufficiently horrified to publish a story complaining about Trump’s “masturbation joke” and how he “wouldn’t let it go.”

The author’s name was Ron Dicker.

Sometimes God writes the copy for you.

But underneath all the jokes, money and spectacle was one line from Trump’s speech that Diana singled out, and I think it explains why this political movement continues to confound so many people:

“America does not belong to those who hate it. America belongs to those who love it.”

That’s the argument Trump wants the midterms to be about. Not a 47-point policy paper.

Whose side are you on?

He says Republicans will protect the border, tax cuts, public safety and American prosperity. He says the other side will undo it. And now he’s added perhaps the simplest campaign promise imaginable:

Elect Republicans and I’ll send American citizens five grand.
Subtle?

No.

Politically difficult to understand?

Not exactly.

And judging from the speed with which Washington started explaining why Americans absolutely cannot be trusted with $5,000 of their own country’s prosperity, I’d say Trump got their attention.

I’m still asking what it does to the deficit.

But I’m also checking the mailbox.

— Bo Snerdley