DONALD Trump appears to have warmed to the idea of sending a payment to millions of taxpayers from the savings made by the Department of Government Efficiency.
The proposal, dubbed a DOGE dividend, was floated by the founder of an Arizona investment firm and Elon Musk appeared curious about it.
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James Fishback proposed an idea of a check to be issued to taxpayers after DOGE sunsets in 2026, according to a paper published on X.
Musk is spearheading the department and is scrambling to find $2trillion worth of savings.
Fishback suggested 20% of the total savings could be set aside for a payment pot.
Under his plans, $400 billion would be distributed to around 79 million taxpayers.
This would roughly equate to each household receiving $5,000.
Trump was quizzed about the proposal on Air Force One and seemed to welcome it.
“I love it,” he said.
“A 20% dividend, so to speak, for the money that we’re saving by going after the waste, fraud and abuse and all of the other things that are happening. I think it’s a great idea.”
Trump revealed the suggestion came from his new best pal, Musk.
Musk responded to Fishback and said he would check with Trump about the idea.
In his paper, Fishback named four potential benefits of the DOGE dividend.
He said checks would be a form of compensation for taxpayers who think their money has been misused.
Fishback also said any payment would act as an incentive to report fraud cases.
He said checks would help restore trust in the government and encourage unemployed Americans to enter the labor market.
Around 6.8 million Americans are unemployed, according to government data.
DOGE estimates to have already saved $55 billion – one month on from Trump’s inauguration.
Officials claim the savings have come from a slew of measures, including canceling building leases, job cuts as well as sales.
But the figures are disputed and Fortune claims that only $16.6 billion of savings are listed on the organization’s website.
And, Fortune has uncovered some discrepancies on the DOGE platform.
It claimed the savings of one contract had been mislabeled $8 billion, rather than $8 million.
Payments would be issued just years after Americans received three rounds of stimulus checks.
The checks, issued between March 2020 and March 2021, saw payments up to $1,200, $600, and $1,400 dished out.
The total relief package cost $814 billion in total.
But, officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis revealed that the checks caused some inflation.
Fishback doesn’t believe any DOGE-related payment would lead to inflation.
He emphasized the check would only be funded by the money saved by DOGE.
And, he doesn’t think the checks would increase the deficit.
Fishback said the checks would be funded by the spending cuts and in the medium term, government tax coffers would increase.
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