Ron Johnson Saves Taxpayers at Least $89 Billion

By opposing a $1,200 check to each American and $500 for each dependent, Senator Ron Johnson (R., Wisconsin) pushed Congress toward a $600 check for each American making less than $75,000 and $600 for each dependent. In so doing, Johnson saved the taxpayer at least $89 billion.

Ron Johnson (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Based on my calculations, there are at least 191,400,280 Americans making less than $75,000 a year, as there are 255,200,373 adults and 75% of income earners make less than $75,000 a year. Carrying over that 75% statistic, there are also at least 49,835,000 dependents (as there are 66,447,000 people under 18). These numbers are a bit low, as they yield a sum of 241,235,280—i.e., a cost of $144.74 billion after the Johnson intervention. The actual cost of the handouts will be $166 billion.

Prior to Johnson's intervention, the cost of the $600 checks to people making less than $75,000 a year would have been at least $229.68 billion (191.4 million times $1,200) and the dependent checks would have cost $24.92 billion (49.84 million times $500). That is a total cost of $254.6 billion.

Thus, Johnson's intervention saved American taxpayers at least $88.6 billion: $254.6 billion subtracted by $166 billion.