Trump's $5,000 a head arrived as $90 out of the Medicare fund he called a pointless slush fund, with the other $4,910 due only if Republicans keep both chambers November 3

…(cont) Monday the fourteenth, National Review called the dividend reckless and said the checks would make inflation worse. Tuesday the fifteenth, Republican senators panned it in The Hill — they would not support giving money to people who don't work or pay taxes, and the fiscal hawks brought up the program's looming insolvency. That same Tuesday, before House Financial Services, the Treasury Secretary said the Department is examining whether the checks could be issued without authorization from Congress. So which of those is the procedure I'm being walked through — the committee, or the examination?

Then October. Friday night the president posted that his administration would immediately begin sending "Checks" of nearly $100 to over 20 MILLION wonderful Seniors — ninety dollars each, out of the two-billion-dollar Medicare Improvement Fund, which the same post called a pointless "Slush Fund." Thursday the eighth, the Daily Caller reported nearly twenty-one million of those payments gone out. The standard Part B premium runs about $202, so the ninety doesn't cover half of one month.

I'm sorry to be the one asking, but five thousand less ninety — what date was published for the rest of it? I went through the week twice. He said seniors can rest assured it follows after the midterms. Is "after the midterms" the date, or is it the place where the date goes?

Here's my trouble. My car needs a fan belt. The man at the garage wrote the estimate on a pad, took ninety dollars from me, wrote the balance underneath it with a day to come back, then tore off the yellow copy and handed it across the counter. Forgive me for circling, but that's the part I keep seeing: somebody carrying the paper across a room. For twenty-one million payments, somebody carried paper to somebody's desk. Who carried the paper for the balance, and which desk took it?

The same number again, I apologize, from the money end: The Hill put the whole payout at around two billion, and the post put the fund at two billion, given by Congress to improve the fee-for-service program. If the ninety came out of that, which account is the balance drawn on?

Wednesday the fourteenth the September report landed: prices up 3.7 percent, and the same report set the 2027 Social Security raise at 3.6. One-tenth under. Back on the twenty-seventh of August, Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee had the average family paying $3,800 more this term for housing, groceries and utilities. Still the same number, sorry — when a man is owed, and his raise comes in a tenth under the prices it measured, whose column shows the unpaid part?

Oh — one more thing, and then you can get your coat. Le Monde, Friday the ninth: the five thousand is conditioned on both chambers remaining Republican after the elections on November 3. The ninety arrived around October 8. I'm sorry, I keep going back to this — which of those two has a date on it, and what is the date on four thousand nine hundred and ten dollars?