Idea of DOGE dividend checks floated

Economists, some in GOP balk at proposal

By: Mike Snider
USA Today

..... Could President Donald Trump issue DOGE stimulus checks? The idea of $5,000 refunds from the ongoing drive to reduce federal spending has been floated.
..... But don't add that bonus to your account just yet. that's because the Department of Government Efficiency ideally must meet its $2 trillion savings goal to make the payment feasible. and that accomplishment is something even Elon Musk the unofficial leader of DOGE, said may not be doable back in January. [2025]
..... Still, Trump on Wednesday [02/19/2025] said the administration is considering giving 20% of "DOGE savings" to citizens. His comments came a day after Musk and he would confer with Trump about the idea.
..... Even if the idea of $5,000 stimulus checks evolves, Congress would need to approve a dispersal of funds to taxpayers.

Where did the idea come from?

..... "anti-woke" investor James Fishback, CEO and co-founder of Azoria Partners, suggested the idea on X on February 14 [2025] and lobbied Musk on the idea of $5,000 checks - based on the $2 trillion in savings accused from DOGE - leaving the rest to pay down the national debt."American taxpayers deserve a 'DOGE dividend': 20% the money that DOGE saves should be sent back to hard-working Americans as a tax refund check. It was their money in the first place," Fishback posted.
..... "@ElonMusk, let's do this! This is how we rebuild trust in our government," he said.
..... In discussing the possible dividend on CNN on Saturday, [02/22/2025] Fishback said the potential check of up to $5,000 would "incentive Americans to report waste, fraud and abuse in their own community. Why? Because the more that DOGE saves, the bigger their check will be."

Who would get the checks?

..... In 2020, Congress passed - and Trump signed -a $2 trillion bipartisan stimulus package to address the economic struggles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. the package included $1,200 checks to qualifying individuals and $2,400 for mores married couples filing jointly with an extra $500 for each qualifying child under age 17.
..... Those stimulus checks were sent to people who had filed tax returns in the two previous years or received Social Security or veterans benefits.

What has Trump said?

..... Trump addressed the issue twice on Wednesday. [0219/2025]
..... "We're considering giving 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens and 20% to paying down the debt," Trump said while speaking at the Saudi-sponsored FII PROIORITY Summit in Miami Beach on Wednesday. [02/19/2025]
..... "I love it," Trump said on Air Force One when asked about the proposal.
..... "A 20% dividend, so to speak, for the money that we're saving by going after the wast and fraud and abuse and all the other thins are happening," he said, according to The Associated Press.
..... Trump also said the dividend would be "an incentive for the taxpayer to go out and report things to us where we can save money."

House speaker skeptical

..... House Speaker Mike Johnson did not deem to be on board with the DOGE dividend proposal when he spoke Thursday [02/20/2025] at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference.
..... "Politically, that would be grate for us, you know, because everybody gets a check," Johnson said, rolling his eyes. "But if you think about our core principles right, fiscal responsibility is what we do as conservatives. That's our brand and we have a $36 trillion federal debt. We have a giant deficit that we're contending with. I think we need to pay down the credit card, right?"

Many economists wary

..... Most economists who have spoken out so far don't think a DOGE dividend would be a good idea.
..... "It would increase the deficit, it would increase immediate consumer spending, and that would have inflationary consequences, which is something we don;t want right now," Judge Clock, director of research at the Manhattan Institute, told Scripps News.
..... The money would be better off spent offsetting he $1 trillion annual budget deficit and to offset tax cuts, Clock said.
..... Another problem with stimulus checks, economists say, is inflation.
..... IF DOGE starts "mailing out large checks to large number of people, wow, that going to put a big boost to inflation because Trump's putting out tariffs and tariff means more expensive goods and services," Jay Zagorsky, a professor at Boston University's Questrom School of Business told CBS News.
..... But Kevin Hassett, Trump's director of the National Economic Council, said Thursday [02/20/2025] during a press briefing that the checks wouldn't be inflationary because the government had already planned to spend the money.
..... "If we don't spend government money and we give it back to the people, if they spend it all, then you're even," he said, according to financial news site investopedia. "But they're probably going to save a lot of it, in which case you're reduce inflation."
..... The issue may be moot because DOGE is unlikely to be able to reach its goal of $2 trillion in savings, Zagorsky said.
..... "I'm just not suer the savings are there," he said.
..... Last week, [02/12/2025] Musk said DOGE had already saved taxpayers $55 billion, but an error - listing the cancellation of an $8 million contract as being an $8 billion savings - suggested it had actually totaled savings of about $16.5 billion.
..... DOGE won't achieve enough savings to issue checks "big enough" to crate inflaition, elaine Kamarck,a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, told The Associated Press. She called the idea of a DOGE dividend "ridiculous.

..... Contributing: Fernando Cervantes Jr., Greta Cross, Josy Garrison, Jessica Guynn, Nick Penzenstadler and James Powel, USA today

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