‘We Can’t Afford’ $2,000 Tariff Rebates, GOP Senator Says

Duties on foreign goods should be used instead to reduce the federal deficit, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said.

Blank U.S. Treasury checks are run through a printer at the U.S. Treasury printing facility in Philadelphia on July 18, 2011. William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

At least one Republican senator has said that the U.S. government cannot afford a Trump administration proposal to send out $2,000 tariff-derived rebate payments.

“If we’re bringing in revenue through the tariffs, that ought to be applied to reduce the deficit, not just to make cash payments to Americans,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo on Monday.