(NewsNation) — A suggestion by an X user to send a check to taxpayers using money saved by President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency gained traction online after Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to it.
“President Trump and @ElonMusk 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,” James Fishback, CEO of InvestAzoria, said on X.
Should DOGE save $2 trillion it’s said it aims to cut, and with 78 million tax-paying households in the United States, Fishback said this would amount to a $5,000 refund per household, “with the remaining used to pay down the national debt.”
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“Will check with the President,” Musk said on X, later writing, “Obviously, the President is the Commander-in-Chief, so this is entirely up to him.”
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It still remains to be seen whether these checks will come to fruition.
The idea got mixed reactions online, with Dilbert creator Scott Adams saying, “The worst case scenario or DOGE is our government treating DOGE ‘savings’ as their new piggy bank, which I fear Congress is already doing.”
“This particular idea — the $5K tax refund — has utility if it gets the public on the side of DOGE,” Adams said. “But it also sets a precedent that can’t be ignored.”
In response, Musk said, “We need to balance the budget as first priority.”
NewsNation has reached out to the Trump administration for comment.
What is DOGE?
DOGE was created by Trump under an executive order. The president said at the time it would “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures” and restructure federal agencies.
Members of DOGE have been going into federal agencies, looking at their budgets and tapping into computer systems. The Associated Press recently reported that DOGE got access to sensitive Treasury data, including Social Security systems. DOGE agents also gained access to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency said this month. New York Magazine reported at least one DOGE worker has been to the Commerce Department’s Maryland headquarters, where they gained access to the agency’s IT system.
In addition, DOGE took control of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s money, locked out workers, accessed classified information and removed leadership.
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DOGE cuts
With the new federal cuts have come layoffs and firings, with the Associated Press estimating that thousands of federal employees have been shown the door, though no official figure is available. Last Thursday, Office of Personnel Management officials met with agency leaders Thursday and directed them to start firing probationary employees.
A lawsuit filed by 14 Democratic states challenged DOGE’s authority to access sensitive government data. Attorneys general argued that Musk has power that can only be given to those elected or confirmed through the Senate.
While U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said there are legitimate questions about Musk’s authority, she refused Tuesday to issue a temporary restraining order blocking him from accessing government data systems or participating in worker layoffs. The White House, meanwhile, says Musk is not technically a part of DOGE but a senior adviser to Trump. Joshua Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration, said in court papers that Musk has “no actual authority to make government decisions himself.”
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How much has DOGE said it’s saved?
DOGE claims that it has saved the government $55 billion — however, Bloomberg notes that its website only accounts for $16.6 billion of that, even without factoring in a previous error that mislabeled one contract as $8 billion. (It was actually $8 million, the New York Times reported.)
Currently listed online are a “subset” of DOGE’s contract and lease cancellations.
“We are working to upload all of this data in a digestible and fully transparent manner with clear assumptions, consistent with applicable rules and regulations,” the DOGE website says.
Contracts it has cut from include USAID, the Department of Education, the Office of Personnel Management, Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security, the General Services Administration, the Department of Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency and Housing and Urban Development.
Experts, including two Republicans who spoke to Reuters, say that most of these “savings” are driven more by ideological views than economic ones.
“They are not going to go into agencies that are doing things they like. They are going into agencies they disagree with,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Republican director of the Congressional Budget Office, told Reuters.
Another criticism of DOGE includes a conflict of interest with Musk as his company SpaceX has received money from federal contracts.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.
