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Elon Musk weighs giving $5,000 to all Americans from DOGE savings — Here’s a reality check
As DOGE chief Elon Musk weighs giving $5,000 cheques to all Americans from his department's savings, we examine if this is a realistic possibility or merely a political gimmick.
Real cheques or reality checks? That is the question. When avid DOGE supporter James Fishback proposed divvying up so-called “DOGE Dividends” to common Americans and tagged Elon Musk on Twitter (now X), it generated much buzz online.
Elon Musk, too, responded with an equally buzz-worthy: “Will check with the President.” This escalated speculation over the possibility of 79 million Americans getting cheques worth $5,000 from DOGE's claimed $55 billion savings for the federal government.
The real picture, however, remains unclear.
‘DOGE Dividends’ for all Americans?
The ‘DOGE Dividend’ idea was proposed on X by Fishback, who is CEO of investment firm Azoria and reportedly an outside adviser to DOGE. In a lengthy post on the site, Fishback tagged Elon Musk proposing a “tax refund check” worth about $5,000 to be sent to “tax paying” American households after the expiration of DOGE in July 2026.
He claimed this could be covered with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE, which Elon Musk has estimated will reach $2 trillion. The number was difficult to confirm, and when Musk was questioned about it, he retracted the estimate.
However, the proposal accounts 20 per cent of DOGE’s targeted $2 trillion in savings to be returned to “the ~79 million tax-paying households,” which Fishback said would result in about a $5,000 return per household.
Musk responded to Fishback’s proposal, saying he “will check with the president.”
DOGE Claims Savings of Over $55 Billion — What Is The Truth?
According to the official DOGE website, the newly formed department under Elon Musk has saved an estimated $55 billion, “which is a combination of fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings.”
Last updated on February 17, the website states that DOGE is working on uploading “all this data” in a “digestible and fully transparent manner.”
However, while DOGE has claimed $55 billion of federal savings, reports by the New York Times and Washington Post note discrepancies in the data published and the numbers claimed.
Doubts Raised Over DOGE Savings Claims
WaPo, in a report, said it added up all the figures posted and got a total of around $6 billion annually. It further noted that the numbers provided had to be taken at face value because no documentation was given to support the claimed amounts. It also noted that most of the “savings” came from cuts made to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) and climate change programmes.
The NYT, in its report, noted that on February 17, DOGE claimed it had saved $16 billion by cancelling several government contracts — including an $8 billion contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But, a look at the actual value of the Department of Homeland Security-run ICE contract was found to be just $8 million and not $8 billion. Further, over the past two-and-a-half years, only $2.5 million of the funds have been used, with the contract date set to expire in 2027, it added.
It cited DOGE's own documents that showed D&G Support Services was awarded the contract to offer “program and technical support services” to the Office of Diversity and Civil Rights at the ICE.
$5,000 Cheques to Americans — Possibility or Political Gimmick?
News platform Politico cited Budget experts who cautioned that any “rebate” programme was unlikely without Congress' approval. They also warned that many lawmakers would rather use that money in other ways — like cutting national debt or paying for Donald Trump's tax extensions.
F Stevens Redburn, a public policy lecturer at George Washington University and a former official of both the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Congressional Budget Office (CBO), said any decision would pass through the two offices and the US Treasury before action is taken.
“If [the DOGE dividend proposal] is real, you have to have a way of estimating and collecting the amounts that are being saved and putting them into some account. Both OMB and CBO would look at that, and then Treasury would then record those amounts. Even if there were measurable savings, Congress would still need to authorise the repayment to taxpayers and method of distribution,” he said.
Redburn also pointed to the questions and lawsuits over the legality of DOGE, suggesting that DOGE itself could be shut down if the judge rules against it.
Notably, the idea of sending cheques to taxpayers is not wholly impossible. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Donald Trump sent government stimulus cheques to millions of eligible Americans. Later, Joe Biden did the same.
But now that there is an informal consideration of disbursing DOGE's “targeted” monies to Americans, the feasibility of sending cheques from savings not yet made remains to be seen.
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Business NewsNewsUs NewsElon Musk weighs giving $5,000 to all Americans from DOGE savings — Here’s a reality check
First Published:19 Feb 2025, 02:55 PM IST
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