GOP lawmakers pump brakes on Trump's $5K check promise: 'Where are you getting the money?'

By Fox News · Fox News

President Donald Trump's promise of a big payout for Americans if Republicans win the midterms is getting a rocky reception on Capitol Hill. Several Republicans outright oppose the $5,000 check promise, while others offered tacit support in comments to Fox News Digital but hesitated on whether it could actually be delivered. It's a sign that the GOP will have an uphill fight to get the "Trump dividend" approved by Congress — with the president and lawmakers divided over whether it even needs the legislative branch's green light. "I disagree with it. It's pay-to-play," Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital. "You shouldn't pay anybody to vote your conscience. Plus, where are you getting the money? I think we're in debt $40 trillion." House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., whose powerful committee would likely play a major role in crafting the $5,000 stimulus if it did run through Congress, said he was "skeptical" it could be achieved. TRUMP FACES RECKONING AS GOP FIGURES LABEL $5K PROMISE A 'SOCIALIST VOTE-BUYING SCHEME' "Take a billion dollars ... I'd rather use it to either bolster defense or save Social Security. I think that's a better use of the money. But again, we have to see what we're looking at. Right now, we don't have a bill," Cole told Fox News Digital. TRUMP DANGLES $5,000 CHECKS AS DEBT SURGES — BUT ONLY IF GOP CAN CLEAR MAJOR MIDTERM HURDLE He added more optimistically, "We just have an idea that we want to get money back to the American people. I like that." Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., said he could support the idea if the sudden injection of cash wouldn't send inflation rates soaring. "But it ought to be limited — people that are working, people that are paying taxes. I don't think we should just send paychecks out to everybody willy-nilly," Rutherford told Fox News Digital. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, simply said, "The devil's always in the details. I prefer to look at ways of getting people job opportunities." VO…