Elon Musk has stated that he will “check with the President” before he sends Americans rebates for federal money saved through the Department of Government Efficiency.
Azoria CEO and co-founder James Fishback used social platform X on Tuesday afternoon to suggest President Donald Trump and Musk “should announce a ‘DOGE Dividend’ — a tax refund check sent to every taxpayer, funded exclusively with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE.”
Musk responded a little more than two hours later by saying, “Will check with the President. “
Fishback included an image entitled “The case for doge dividend” in his post.
Fishback stated that DOGE was aiming to save $2 trillion. Fishback proposed returning $400 billion of taxpayers’ money. That would be approximately $5,000 per household, for the 78 million who pay federal income taxes.
Politico reported a program like this would require congressional approval. Budget experts think lawmakers would prefer to use the money in a different way.
Some House Republicans suggested the savings could reduce the national debt. Some House Republicans see the DOGE savings to be an opportunity for Trump’s tax cuts from his first term.
Democrats will be reluctant to support any measure that could increase Trump’s popularity among voters.
Politico reported former OMB official F. Stevens Redburn saying, “If the DOGE Dividend is true, then you have to estimate and collect all of the savings and put them in a specific account.” “OMB (Office of Management and Budget) and CBO [Congressional Budget Office] would both examine it and then Treasury would record these amounts. “
According to the DOGE website, as of Wednesday morning, “total estimated savings is $55 billion.”
The group claims that the total represents “a combination” of fraud detection/deletion and contract/lease cancellations/renegotiations. Asset sales and grant cancellations were also included.
Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were named to lead DOGE shortly after Trump’s victory in the November election. DOGE’s mandate was to identify financial waste, fraud, and abuse of government expenditure. Ramaswamy left DOGE in order to run for Ohio governor.
Musk said last week that he would “delete entire agencies” as part of his efforts to dramatically cut spending and restructure the priorities.
Musk said during a video conference at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates: “I think we should delete entire agencies rather than leaving many behind.” “If we don’t remove the roots, the weeds will easily come back.”