Collins: Trump’s proposed $5K dividend ‘extraordinarily costly’

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said President Trump’s proposal to give $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans win the midterm elections “would be extraordinarily costly” and questioned providing it to everyone regardless of financial need.

“From the few details we have, it seems that the proposed $5,000 dividend would not have an income cap and would be extraordinarily costly,” Collins said in a statement.

“Tax and spending decisions should be made based on the needs of the American people and the state of the economy, they should not appear to be tied to election results,” she said.

Collins has emerged as one of the highest-profile GOP critics of the proposal , which would cost more than $1 trillion and add to the nation’s $40 trillion debt unless Congress finds a way to offset it.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) defended the idea during an interview with Fox News as a proposal to put more money into the pockets of Americans.

But Thune hesitated on whether the GOP-controlled Senate would take up the proposal on the floor and attempt to pass it.

“Well, that’s a good question,” he said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Fiscal conservatives have panned the idea.

Former Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), a past chair of the House Freedom Caucus, dismissed the proposal as a “socialist vote-buying scheme.”