2000 = 2024?

I don't really care whether the next round of "stimulus" checks are for $600 or $2,000.

For one thing, I don't get those checks (at least I didn't the first time around, and don't expect to the second time).

For another, it's not really free magic money. It's just money the government is borrowing, on a promise to beat it out of taxpayers' hides, with interest, later.

But I do find it interesting that Donald Trump is publicly posturing as if he may veto the $600 per person "stimulus" and try to force a $2,000 per person payout.

My assumption is that he's doing so as a faux-populist play for votes in 2024, in the event he decides to run for president again, and if that's the case it's a win-win proposition for him.

If Congress says uncle, voters will remember that Trump got them "an extra $1,400."

If Congress says no, voters will remember that Trump tried to get them "an extra $1,400."

Since the money's not coming out of his pocket, it's no skin off his nose either way, and some people will remember him fondly for it whether he runs again or not.

Ronald Reagan said "there is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit."

But the next time the folks in the White House and on Capitol Hill don't care who gets credit for anything will be the first time.