A Warrior's Dividend, Or Something
Trump announced that US Military service members will receive a check for $1,776. Unfortunately for the military, Trump is a perennial bankruptee.
The past 24 hours have been… something. Citizens of Free Country USA have been informed by their dear leader that the government will be sending "Warrior Dividends" to members of the US military. These will come in the form of a one-time payment of $1,776 USD, a nod to the year 1776, which is the last time our country's leadership was able to agree on something.
Of course, it's not actually just a flat payout to service members out of the goodness of this administration's collective hearts. Instead, it appears to be a pretty transparent ploy to curry favor with the military—or more specifically—curry favor with people who think empty gestures to the military equates to patriotism.
Because uh, these checks aren't actually newly-designated money. And this move will likely end up screwing over the most vulnerable military families in the United States.
But, the Checks May Actually Happen!
This isn't the first time the Trump administration has said something about sending out checks to people. Trump himself has often pondered out loud the idea of sending "tariff dividends" to the people of the United States. Of course, that would just amount to giving people checks for a lesser amount than they've had to pay for increased cost of living... from tariffs.
But THESE checks may actually happen. The money is already appropriated for it, even! Turns out, the checks are coming out of a ~$2.9 Billion USD fund that was designated for "Basic Allowance for Housing" ("BAH") for the military.
A bit of back-of-the-napkin math shows that if the Trump admin uses this fund for their Warrior Dividends, they'll deplete nearly the entire fund: ~$2.6 Billion of it.
Notably, Trump still insisted during his announcement that the money for these payments is coming from tariffs. That is flatly false.
Who Needs Housing, Anyway?
What is a Basic Allowance for Housing? Oh, just a housing affordability program for lower-earning service members. It's essentially a pool of money for the military to help enlistees cover housing costs as a perk.
It won't pay your whole rent or mortgage, but it's effectively housing affordability aid that is meant to be dispersed as-needed based on individual circumstances, housing markets in the area of the service members, etc.
Instead, it seems Trump has rocked up and said, "oh, pile of money? Let's do a gimmick." The result is that a fund that is meant to help the lowest income military families has been nearly emptied for the sake of a publicity stunt.
