An accounting of Trump's promised payouts and questions they raise

Amna Nawaz:

President Trump is cutting checks to Americans and promising more with less than three weeks left in a midterm cycle largely focused on affordability. Trump argues they're refunds for high health care costs and economic dividends that only his party can deliver. Democrats contend he's trying to bribe citizens to vote for Republicans.

Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, is here with an accounting of those payouts.

Good to see you, Liz.

Liz Landers:

Yes. Nice to see you.

Amna Nawaz:

So let's start with those checks some Americans have already started to receive in the last week or so for Affordable Care Act fees. How much are people getting and what's the president's rationale for those?

Liz Landers:

People are starting to get these $500 checks really in the last week or so. It's gone out to about a million Americans so far across 30 different states.

And this is for people that don't get premium assistance. With these checks was a personal letter that the president wrote. And it says in part: "I'm proud to return your money to you, and I will never stop fighting to put the American people first, restore affordability, protect your hard-earned money, and lower the cost of health care."

Now I spoke with Cynthia Cox about this. She's the director of the Affordable Care Act Program at KFF. And she said that this move from the administration is unprecedented. But she also explained how this can help Americans and how these checks will factor into overall rising health care costs.

Cynthia Cox, Program on the ACA Director, KFF: For people who get ACA coverage, in particular, the people who lost subsidy this year, they're probably paying a couple thousand dollars more in their premiums this year than they were last year. So the $500 checks are probably going to help. I mean, $500 is nothing to sneeze at, but they're still having a much higher cost beyond that $500 this year than they were last year.

Liz Landers:

Cox says that the timing of this is political. She said she first heard about this idea floated out there last year, but, of course, now it's being implemented just a few weeks before a midterm election.

The White House fact sheet that they put out claimed that the Biden administration -- quote -- "accumulated a significant surplus of funds that were not used to benefit the Americans who paid these higher premiums." But I asked Cox about this, and she says that the different administrations between the Biden and Trump administration have collected different user fees, and that the Trump administration inherited this surplus from the Biden administration, and now they're sending it out as checks.

Amna Nawaz:

Meanwhile, that's not the only check the administration is sending out. There's more than 20 million Medicare enrollees who could receive a payment as well. What's the reasoning behind those payouts?

Liz Landers:

These are $90 checks, so much less money, only one-time payments. And this is going to Medicare Part B participants. But Medicare Advantage enrollees and other people with disabilities and some low-income Medicare recipients are not eligible for this.

Of course, Medicare Part B covers things like ambulance services, doctor visits, lab tests. So this is helpful, of course; $90 is not nothing. And this will go out to about 21 million Americans. This payment is coming through the Medicare Improvement Fund created by Congress in 2008.

And it's not the first time that the fund has been used. The Obama administration and Congress redirected money to expand coverage, but it's the first time that it's been used for direct payments like this.

Amna Nawaz:

Liz, meanwhile, there's this other promise the president made you reported on that he first made from the midterm convention stage in Dallas that he would send $5,000 to all American adults. Let's just start with what that would cost.

Liz Landers:

It would cost about a trillion dollars and add that much money to the national debt, which is why you have seen people raise immediate questions about this. This, of course, made big news when the president announced this from the stage during the midterm convention about a month ago.

And he has been repeating this and promising this over and over to Americans throughout just about every midterm rally that I have watched and covered. And, yesterday, he talked about this yet again.

President Donald Trump:

If Republicans can win the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, I am going to give all adult citizens in the United States of America $5,000.

(CHEERING)

President Donald Trump:

Think of it.

Liz Landers:

President Trump was asked in September, sort of right after this announcement, why are you doing this if your economic policies are working? And he said that this is not to turn out voters. He said instead it is a -- quote -- "reward" for voters having to put up with Biden's economic policies.

There are, of course, lingering questions about congressional approval of this. Just a reminder, Amna, we're hearing the president make all these promises. He also promised in November of last year, almost a year ago now, that a $2,000 dividend check would be going out to every American for a tariff revenue refund. That has yet to materialize.