ATLANTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - President Donald Trump added fuel to the midterm fire recently after promising to give every American $5,000 if Republicans gain control of both the House and the Senate.

Some economists are skeptical of the plan.

“The math isn’t mathing,” Tom Smith, an economist and finance instructor at Emory University, said. “The back of the envelope math looks like $5,000 turned into maybe $1.3 trillion worth of expenses. And if you look at the money that we brought in from tariffs, it might be in the billions of dollars. So, we’re missing a zero on the tariff money to translate that into a rebate check.”

Some voters consider the promise nothing more than election bribery.

“If there is a way to pay people to get people into office, then you don’t really know what they’re standing for,” Jeeva Rao, an Atlanta resident, said.

“Basically he’s bribing people and making false promises for the votes,” Bakari Ecienne, another Atlanta resident, said.

There’s also potential inflation that could come with so much money being pushed into the economy if that promise comes true.

“Don’t forget, just recently we passed that $40 trillion deficit line in the sand, if you will,” Smith said. “I don’t think you can take that $40 trillion deficit and then add an additional $1.3 trillion to that. I don’t think the American public has an appetite for that type of expenditure.”

The president also said the $5,000 would have to be spent in the United States. It’s not clear exactly how that would work.

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