Entrepreneur and Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang on Sunday defended his plan to provide a universal basic income, saying it’ll stimulate the U.S. economy.

In an interview on CBS News’ "Face The Nation," Yang refuted criticism that providing every American with $1,000 a month would kill any work incentive.

“Americans will work even harder when they get the resources in place to get ahead,” he asserted.

“The money will go right into local main street businesses, to car repairs, daycare expenses, Little League signups and that’s where the economic value needs to go in order to create jobs where people live and work.”

He called the idea “the trickle-up economy.”

“Every other developed economy already has a mechanism just like this – Europe, Canada, Asia,” he said, referring to a value-added tax.

“And everyone has figured out that you can't have a trillion dollar tech company like Amazon pay zero in taxes, less than everyone who is watching this right now. That doesn't make sense and the American people know it. This has already been figured out by every other developed economy.”

He then noted that Alaska already has a version of the basic income guarantee.

“Alaska has had a dividend of $1,000 to $2,000 per individual for almost 30 years,” he said. “It was passed by a Republican governor. It is wildly popular. It's created thousands of jobs in Alaska. You don't need to look abroad. They call it the oil check in Alaska. We'll call this the tech check.”

"It will help rejuvenate American main street businesses and give us all a path forward,” he said.

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