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Trump Health Care Cash Plan: Over the weekend, President Donald Trump shared a pair of bold ideas. He talked about giving Americans direct payments to help with health care expenses and offering $2,000 dividends funded by tariff revenue.
Later, administration officials clarified that these suggestions were not formal proposals sent to the Senate.
On Saturday, the president took to Truth Social to share his views. He urged Senate Republicans to redirect the billions now going to what he called “money-sucking insurance companies.”
Instead, he said the money should go straight to the people, allowing them to choose and pay for their own, better health care.
The following day, he doubled down on his message. He said Republicans should direct the funds to people’s health savings accounts instead.
These accounts let individuals save pretax money to pay for certain medical costs.
Talking about his tariff plan, Trump said the U.S. is now collecting trillions of dollars. He claimed that this money would soon be used to start paying off the country’s massive $37 trillion debt.
He also highlighted record levels of investment, saying new factories and plants are opening across the nation.
Trump added that every American, except high-income earners, would receive at least $2,000 in dividends.
On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the president’s health care idea for Senate Republicans was still being developed.
“We don’t have a formal proposal,” he told ABC’s This Week. He explained that nothing was being presented to the Senate at this stage.
Bessent added that any proposal would depend on resolving the government shutdown, which is set to enter its 40th day on Monday.
“The president has mentioned it,” he said. “But our priority is to reopen the government first. We won’t start talks with the Democrats until that happens. It’s really that simple.”
Kevin Hassett, the National Economic Council director, shared a similar view on CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday, also minimizing the proposal’s significance.
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“He’s thinking out loud and trying to help the Senate find a way to reopen the government,” Hassett said.
He continued, “Everyone wants Americans to have health care. So why not give people with higher premiums a check and let them decide how to use it?”
Hassett added that the idea hasn’t been seriously discussed within the Senate or the Trump administration.
“The president brought up this idea only yesterday,” Hassett said. “I don’t think the Senate has had much time to talk about it yet—it’s the weekend, after all.”
The Senate stayed in Washington for uncommon Saturday and Sunday sessions, continuing efforts to end the shutdown.
On ABC, Bessent was also asked about Trump’s $2,000 tariff “dividend” plan. He said he hadn’t discussed it with the president yet but suggested it “could take different forms.”
“It might just be part of the tax cuts already in the president’s agenda,” he said. “Things like no taxes on tips, overtime pay, or Social Security, and allowing auto loan deductions.”
He noted that these changes represent major savings included in the tax bill. The idea of issuing tariff rebate checks had also been discussed earlier this year.
In July, after Trump voiced support for giving Americans tariff rebate checks, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri put forward a bill to make it happen.
The plan called for $600 payments to adults and children, funded through tariff revenue. The Senate has yet to bring the bill to a vote.
Trump’s recent posts came as Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill remain locked in a standoff over the government shutdown, with no clear path to breaking the deadlock.
An NBC News poll earlier this month showed that more Americans hold Republicans responsible for the shutdown than Democrats.
On Tuesday, Democrats scored sweeping wins, outperforming expectations in major races across New Jersey and Virginia.
Exit polls showed that many voters in those states were unhappy with Trump’s performance and pessimistic about the direction of the U.S. economy.
Since then, Trump has continued to stress that the economy is thriving. On Sunday, he posted on Truth Social, saying, “People who oppose tariffs are fools!
We’re now the richest and most respected nation in the world, with almost no inflation and a record-breaking stock market. 401(k)s are higher than ever before.”
Still, Trump’s weekend posts hinted that Republicans may realize they need to do more.
In a memo on Friday, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin called Tuesday’s results “a clear Blue Sweep.”
He said the victories happened because “Donald Trump and the Republicans are failing Americans, while Democrats are fighting on their behalf.”
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