The cash bazooka: Why Trump wants to send you money

President Trump sure wants to give Americans money — he's talked up tariff-funded rebate checks, a $1,776 "warrior dividend" and plans to send billions of dollars to farmers, and that's on top of record-breaking tax refund checks expected next year.Why it matters: Giving cash is a go-to White House move, one that pre-dates Trump. It's a crowd pleaser, typically reserved for moments when the economy is in clear distress — except that's not quite where the U.S. is now. The big picture: There are two main reasons lawmakers send cash, and each come with complications. 1. Extra dough raises economic activity, and helps those who need money get by.Outside of recessions, however, all that increased economic activity can lead to inflation. That's one of the big knocks against the Biden administration's $1,400 checks in 2021.2. People like getting money. "It's just base populism obviously, to send out checks to folks without any particular need outside of a recession," says Stan Vueger, an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Yet it's not clear that generosity is ultimately rewarded. Biden's checks did not assuage voters' anger over rising inflation.Follow the money: Giving people cash can provide an important economic boost, especially in downturns, says Jared Bernstein, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under Biden."But, perhaps weirdly, I've never seen politicians get any love for such distributions."Between the lines: "The politics next year are all about the midterms, if you can boost the economy before that and the inflation comes due after the election, it could be a politically smart strategy," says Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve economist who was a big proponent of sending cash during the 2020 pandemic recession.Sending out money is also something the federal government is actually good at, she says, as opposed to figuring out complicated affordability policies around, say, housing or price competition."Treasury is very good at firing up the electronic printing presses and getting the money out quickly. We do it in crisis. We have a lot of experience at it."Zoom in: For the current White House, it's a go-to policy lever, instead of getting into the administrative weeds. For example, to address health care costs, Trump has frequently talked about simply giving people money to buy health insurance.Yes, but: "These are all very different policies being thought about in different contexts," Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, tells Axios.With the $1,776 checks Trump is showing support for the military, as he's been doing. Farmer payments are being used to ameliorate tariff impact. The health insurance idea is part of a Republican push on health savings accounts.What they're saying: "President Trump is delivering on a longtime GOP priority to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in our government and let the American people keep more of their hard-earned money via tax cuts," Desai says. Friction point: The president can't do the big $2,000 checks without Congress, and so far Republicans seem cool to the idea.But while we're not in recession, there are pockets of pain – particularly for the lowest-earning households, hit disproportionately harder by tariffs.A policy more tailored than simply giving checks to everyone might be a better fix in our current moment, Sahm says.She points to Canada, which has mitigated tariff pain by sending out quarterly payments to low-and moderate income households. Instead of a big whoosh of cash, the steady drip of money lessens the risk of inflation, she saysThe problem there, politically, is that such a system is far less splashy than a four-figure check. Sahm compares it to when President Obama adjusted payroll withholdings in his first term, and people hardly realized they were getting a little extra in their checks."It was stealth stimulus," she says. "President Trump is not a stealth president."