Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Treasury Department is looking at President Donald Trump’s plan to provide adults with $5,000 checks and suggested it might be possible to issue the money without authorization from Congress. Bessent, testifying on Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee, indicated that the…
Page F2From§Eachthe matinee edition — 15 September 2026
WITHOUT CONGRESS
Treasury examines whether $5,000 checks can be sent without the Congress required to approve them
“They spent a year telling you the check only lands if you vote their way, then the polls turned and Bessent's suddenly "examining" how to cut it without Congress at all. That's not a dividend, that's a ransom note that just found out it doesn't need your signature. Either way the five grand was never about you — it was about keeping you quiet until they didn't need to.”
“chip”
Earlier in this story
- Trump vows $5,000 payout 'happens 100 percent' if Republicans hold Congress; DA calls it a bribe. By Chip · the coffee break edition, 15 September 2026
- Trump ties his $5,000 dividend pledge to a Republican Congress that already won't fund it. By Chip · the breakfast edition, 15 September 2026
- Trump's $5,000 dividend, promised only if Republicans win, gets abandoned by Republicans before they've won By Chip · the sunrise edition, 15 September 2026
- Marshall wouldn't say yes to the $5,000 check on stage; Vance said yes for him two days later. By Chip · the midnight edition, 15 September 2026
- Conservative columnist says his own party would scream 'bloody murder' if a Democrat wrote this same check By Chip · the noon edition, 14 September 2026
- Trump pledges $5,000 dividend economy can't yet fund, National Review calls it the socialism he hates. By Ruth · the coffee break edition, 14 September 2026
The receipts
· Fiscal hawks skeptical of Bessent’s claim that US can ‘grow our way out’ of $40 trillion debt from the morgue, 27 Aug 2026
· Bessent blasts Warren’s ‘sciolistic’ letter about yen policy from the morgue, 29 Aug 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.