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As U.S. National Debt Passes $40 Trillion, Bessent Says There Are Ways To Send Trump’s $5,000 Checks “Without Increasing The Debt Or Deficit.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Congress he knows how to send every American a $5,000 check without adding a single dollar to the national debt, then refused to explain how, all while warning that deficit spending is already driving mortgage…

By AJ Tiarsmith
Published September 15, 2026, 1:14pm ET · 3 min read

A middle-aged man with short brown hair and glasses, wearing a blue button-down shirt, sits at a light wooden kitchen table. He is focused intently on a digital tablet he holds in his hands, which displays a news headline about 'NATIONAL DEBT PASSES' and '$5,000 CHECKS'. His left hand is resting under his chin, indicating thoughtfulness. A white coffee mug and a stack of papers are also on the table. In the background, a large window with white frames shows a bright, somewhat blurred outdoor scene, and a kitchen area with wooden cabinets and a dark green countertop is visible.
A man intently reads about the U.S. national debt and potential $5,000 checks on a tablet, reflecting on the economic news impacting households. These topics are central to current financial discussions, as highlighted by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. © 24/7 Wall St.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the House Financial Services Committee on September 15, 2026, that the administration has a way to send Americans $5,000 checks, as MarketWatch reported, without financing them through new borrowing. He would not say how. Pressed by Democratic Rep. Juan Vargas of California, per MarketWatch, Bessent said: “I believe that there are ways to do it without increasing the debt or deficit. I’m not ready to discuss it at present, but at Treasury, we’ve been working on it for quite a while.” He also held out the possibility, MarketWatch reported, that the payments could be made without congressional approval. The proposal amounts to a very large direct payment, a claimed funding path, and a refusal to describe it.

A Claim Made Against a $40 Trillion Backdrop, according to MarketWatch

Bessent’s assurance landed in an unusual fiscal setting. CNBC reported last month that U.S. government debt passed $40 trillion for the first time, a level MarketWatch also cited during Tuesday’s hearing at $40 trillion. Borrowing costs are moving in step. CNBC reported that the 10-year Treasury note traded at 5% as the hearing kicked off Tuesday morning, its highest level since 2007.

Earlier in the same session, Bessent himself connected the two. “I believe that the 10-year yield reflects many things, but the need to address the deficit is one of those,” he told the committee, per CNBC, according to U.S. Department of the Treasury. Set beside his later remark to Vargas, the two statements sit uneasily together: the deficit is helping push borrowing costs to a multi-decade high, and a payment program on the scale of $5,000 per recipient can be arranged so that it does not touch the deficit at all, according to MarketWatch. He did not reconcile them.

What Households Are Paying Right Now

Rising yields are already in ordinary bills. CNBC reported that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate average topped 7% last week. At the pump, AAA data cited by CNBC put the U.S. average price of gasoline at $4.32 a gallon as of Monday, up $1.14 from a year earlier per AAA. Diesel, per AAA, stood at $6.23, up $2.54 over the past year. That is the backdrop against which a five-figure payment is being floated.

Politics, and a Track Record

The proposal itself carries a condition. MarketWatch reported that Trump has framed the dividends as contingent on Republicans keeping control of both chambers of Congress. Inside the hearing room, other Democrats on the panel called the payments a bribe, per MarketWatch. Outside it, the reception on the Republican side has been cool: The Hill reported Tuesday that the $5,000 dividend falls flat with GOP senators.

There is also a history of promised checks not arriving. ABC News reported that Trump had previously pledged $2,000 tariff dividends that still had not materialized ten months later.

Bessent said Treasury has been working on the mechanism “for quite a while,” and what to watch now is narrow and testable. Either the department produces one on the record, with a legal basis and a funding source Congress and the bond market can see, or it does not. Until then, what has been offered is a claim without a mechanism, made in the same sitting in which the Treasury Secretary told lawmakers the deficit is part of what is pushing their constituents’ mortgage and borrowing costs to a nearly two-decade high.

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AJ Tiarsmith

AJ spent 10 years writing about financial markets at The Motley Fool. His coverage centers on technology stocks and the broader macroeconomic trends, from interest rates to geopolitics,  that shape where markets are headed next. AJ is drawn to the stories where big-picture economics and individual companies collide.

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