Musk Considers 'DOGE Dividend' to Send Americans Checks Using Saved Funds

Elon Musk expressed interest in a proposal to employ Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) savings to pay taxpayers a "DOGE dividend".

X user James Fishback tagged Musk in a post outlining his idea to collect 20% of DOGE's savings and return it "to hardworking Americans as a tax refund check." It was their money from the beginning!"

Fishback stated that if DOGE meets its aim of eliminating $2 trillion in government spending, the 78 million taxpaying households in the United States would receive approximately a $5,000 return or "DOGE dividend" each home, with the remaining utilized to pay down the national debt.

"Will check with the President," Musk said in response to Fishback's post.

Although DOGE has set a lofty goal of $2 trillion in savings, Musk has said that $1 trillion in savings would be sufficient, and he justified this aim during an interview with President Donald Trump on Fox News' "Hannity" on Tuesday night.

"The overall goal is to try to get a trillion dollars out of the deficit," Mr. Musk said. "If the deficit is not brought under control, America will go bankrupt." 

"This is a fundamental concept for people to understand. A country is no different from an individual in that if an individual overspends, the individual might go bankrupt. "And so can a country," he stated. "And the vast waste, fraud, and abuse that has been taking place, It leads to a $2 trillion annual deficit."

DOGE asserts that the cancellation of some government leases and contracts, asset sales, fraud elimination, regulatory savings, and workforce cutbacks have resulted in savings of around $55 billion.

While Musk looked open to the concept of a DOGE dividend on Tuesday night, he stated on Wednesday morning that DOGE's efforts should be focused on balancing the budget.

Musk wrote in a post on Wednesday, "We need to balance the budget as a priority," in response to a post by Scott Adams, who expressed concern that the DOGE dividend could result in the government using DOGE savings as a "piggy bank."

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the federal government's budget deficit for fiscal year 2024 will exceed $1.8 trillion.

According to CBO forecasts, it will expand by more than $2 trillion each year in the coming years, leaving DOGE and the Trump administration with a substantial gap to bridge if they want to balance the budget.