The phrase Congress controls the purse strings means exactly what you think it does.
The president can’t cut and issue checks to the country, or anyone, without congressional authorization.
Trump said during his deranged White House address:
Next spring is projected to be the largest tax refund season of all time because of tariffs, along with the just passed one big, beautiful bill. Tonight I am also proud to announce that more than 1,450,000, think of this 1 million. 450,000 military service members will receive a special we call Warrior Dividend before Christmas.
So Warrior Dividend. In honor of our nation’s founding in 1776, we are sending every soldier $1,776. Think of that, and the checks are already on the way. Nobody. Understood that one until about 30 minutes ago, we made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs. And the bill helped us along.
Trump suggested that the money was coming from tariffs, but this wasn’t true. Trump may think that the money is coming from tariffs, but Congress never authorized any additional payments to members of the military, so the funds were definitely not coming from tariffs.
The money was, in fact, coming from funding already allocated by Congress to the troops.
Trump’s Warrior Dividend was a scam to pick the troops’ pockets and then give them their own money.
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