Republican Lawmaker Says $2,000 Tariff Dividend Payment Costs Could Be ‘Astronomical’

Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), says the money should be used to pay off the national debt.

Blank Treasury checks are run through a printer at the U.S. Treasury printing facility in Philadelphia, Pa., on Feb. 11, 2005. William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

Another Republican lawmaker said that the cost of a $2,000 tariff dividend payment floated by the Trump administration could cost an “astronomical” amount, signaling more GOP opposition to the measure.

Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) told Fox Business on Nov. 28 that sending out the payments to Americans would have to be evaluated to determine the potential cost involved. 

“The cost of those is going to be really astronomical,” he said, responding to whether he supports the payments. “I think we need to worry about taking some of this money and actually paying down our debt.”

Murphy said he might consider a tariff dividend payment to help low-income people, but “we have to look at the cost” of the payments.

President Donald Trump has said the dividend payments would be sent out to low- or middle-income people, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said there could be an income limit of $100,000 per family. Officials, including Bessent, have said the payments would first need to be approved by Congress.

Aside from Murphy, at least one Republican lawmaker said in an interview last week that the U.S. government currently cannot afford tariff-derived $2,000 payments and that tariffs implemented by the Trump administration should be used to pay off the national debt.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told Fox Business, “we can’t afford it,” referring to the tariffs, and “we have to start focusing on that and doing something about” the national debt, which currently stands at around $38 trillion.

The idea of the payments was floated on Truth Social last month by Trump, who later told reporters that payments would be sent out by mid-2026. At the same time, Trump has continually defended his administration’s use of import taxes and suggested revenue would increase significantly next year.

“Soon Tariffs will be paid on everything they apply to, without avoidance, and the amounts payable to the USA will SKYROCKET, over and above the already historic levels of dollars received. These payments will be RECORD SETTING, and put our Nation on a new and unprecedented course,” Trump wrote in a post on Nov. 24.

Along with the dividend payments, Trump has said he is in favor of scrapping federal income tax completely because of revenue generated via tariffs.

“Over the next couple of years, I think we‘ll substantially be cutting and maybe cutting out completely, but we’ll be cutting income tax. Could be almost completely cutting it because the money we’re taking in is going to be so large,” Trump said in an event on Thanksgiving.

The legality of Trump’s tariffs is being reviewed by the Supreme Court, coming after the government appealed lower court rulings saying the administration exceeded its authority by implementing the duties under an emergency law known as the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Should the high court rule against the tariffs, Trump and Bessent have said that the government has other authorities to carry out the tariffs. The president has said that ending the tariffs would be devastating to the U.S. economy.

Reuters contributed to this report.