DOGE May Deliver $5,000 Dividend To Every American Household

Direct payments

Remember the “stimmy” checks sent during the pandemic? They might be making a comeback… in a different form. The idea of a “DOGE dividend” first surfaced on social media by Azoria CEO James Fishback and was later pitched to the White House by Elon Musk. President Trump likes the idea, referring to the recent numbers coming from DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts as “incredible.”

The proposal: Should DOGE be able to cut $2T from the federal budget, the government could use 20% of those savings to send 79M American households (that pay federal income tax) a check for $5,000. Another “20% would go towards paying down debt” as the “top DOGE priority remains reducing the deficit to stop inflation and lower interest rates.” The new scheme would also “incentivize Americans to report ‘waste, fraud and abuse’ to DOGE” to hit the $2T savings target.

Musk has already acknowledged that $2T will be hard to hit, and it appears that the value of some contracts and real estate entries posted to DOGE’s “Wall Of Receipts” are not necessarily savings. The total amount saved thus far is listed as $55B, though some of those contracts stipulate the maximum price tag that can be awarded and are not necessarily indicative of the amount spent. Savings listed on things like “fraud detection/deletion” and “workforce reductions” are also estimated and may not denote final numbers.

Fine print: DOGE dividends would be funded by the money that’s cut or defunded from prior funds allocated by Congress, setting up a situation that would likely involve wrangling over the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. It restricts a president from withholding funds that were appropriated on Capitol Hill, but its constitutionality could be appealed to the Supreme Court. The law may also be amended by Congress, or rescissions (canceled funds) could return to the Republican-controlled Congress, which would then have 45 days to decide on their fate.