WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2026
"What, us add to the debt?" For heaven's sake, who are we kidding?
We'll expect to be back to our usual task of saving the world by the start of next week. For today, as the madnesses keep piling up, we'll start by directing you to this report about the latest gong show:
Bessent Straight Up Claims Trump’s $5K Checks Can Go Out Without Adding to the Debt
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wildly insisted on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s proposed $5,000 checks to Americans could be sent out without adding to the national debt.
The president first floated the plan during last week’s Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, promising to send the money if the GOP retains control of Congress in the midterms. He’s said he doesn’t think the checks will require congressional approval and has pointed to tariff revenue and more than $20 trillion in claimed U.S. investment to justify the proposal.
Those figures have been disputed. CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale noted tariff revenue falls far short of the roughly $1.3 trillion estimated cost of the checks, while calling Trump’s $20 trillion investment figure “fiction.”
And so on from there, with videotape provided.
But yes, that basic report seems to be accurate. Yesterday, in a congressional hearing, Bessent seemed to say that he could hand out $1.3 trillion in checks 1) without adding to the annual deficit and therefore 2) without adding to our rapidly growing national debt.
Yes, that seems to be what he said. Yes, he seems to have said it!
We expect to be back Monday morning, perhaps with a new, improved attitude and tone. But just for the record, Jared Bernstein offers this guest essay in today's New York Times:
The National Debt Never Scared Me. It Scares Me.
[...]
For years, I wasn’t an alarmist about the national debt. During the Biden administration, I even criticized those calling for more austere budget policy; I thought that fiscal austerity would do more harm than good.
Our fiscal reality has changed significantly since those days, and so has my stance on public debt. Here’s why:
Bernstein was chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Biden administration. He goes on from there to explain.
As we've noted in the recent past, Bernstein has recently written other such columns, as has Paul Krugman. But it seems that nothing is going to stop the flow of the madnesses from the current administration.
In truth, discussions of policy topics like this barely exist at this point. Our discourse has been swallowed by the serial tabloid lunacies of the sitting president, lunacies whose fairly obvious (medical) origin our scribes agree not to discuss.
