President Trump doubled down this week on an idea to send $2,000 rebate checks to tens of millions

of Americans. He floated the notion this weekend and has offered no specifics. But the president

suggested that the government could send that money too low and middle income Americans and

still have enough tariff revenue left to make a dent in the national debt.

Most experts say that that math doesn't add up.

To help us get some clarity on the numbers, we're joined now by Erica York.

She's vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation.

Erica, welcome to the NewsHour.

Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

So let's begin with those tariffs.

The White House said back in September, the tariffs had raised $8 trillion in revenue,

but yesterday the president cited some different figures.

Here's what he had to say in the Oval Office.

This is trillions of dollars we're talking about in terms of the tariff income

and all the investment income that's come into our country.

You know, we have more than, I would say right now, more than $18 trillion.

Erica, do those figures line up with any data you've been able to see?

No. The Treasury Department has reported that through September, all tariffs have raised

about $195 billion for the federal government. That, of course,

includes pre-existing tariffs as well as the new tariffs that the president has imposed this year.

If you break it down further using data from CBP, those new tariffs have generated about $117 billion

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