I am praying that Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, or a chimpanzee with an abacus, will appear to help us figure out this latest financial mind phuque, fresh from Miami Beach. Donald is still in Florida, although expected to reluctantly return to Washington, D.C. later tonight. (Pssst: He doesn’t like his plane. He wants a new Air Force One. Two new Air Force Ones in point of fact.) He’s spent the past five days golfing and playing. That’s pretty good to take a five-day vacation the first month on a new job. It’s especially hilarious in light of two things: 1. It’s not the only time he’s taken off since he returned to office and 2. he’s castigated remote workers, saying that they wouldn’t do any work if they were allowed to work remotely. But let’s not digress. Let’s focus on the latest lunacy.
Trump announces his administration is exploring giving 20% of the DOGE savings to American taxpayers, and 20% towards the US debt. pic.twitter.com/ED8uWHQMiv
— Katie Liane (@TheKaterPotater) February 19, 2025
Okay. Bear these numbers in mind. Because this is going to get weird and fast. (And no I don’t know where the other 60% is supposed to go, I’m assuming into his own pocket.)
So Trump is already walking back the Doge dividend of $5,000 per American and said it would now be 20% of the doge savings. Based on his fake estimates of 55 billion dollars saved currently that's $32.83 each. This is getting hilarious.
— Betty (@AmazonWoman22) February 19, 2025
Okay, we have $32.83. That’s on the one hand. But there was also an estimate of $5,000 per household (or maybe it was per taxpayer. I told you this would give you a headache.) Let’s look at that.
The proposal argues the $5,000 refund would be funded through DOGE savings.
This is different than the $4 trillion of fiscal stimulus that was funded through deficit spending.
It also argues the refund is ONLY sent to tax-paying households who have a higher propensity to save. pic.twitter.com/1jk0nE6qgS
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) February 19, 2025
So now Elon and his peachfuzz tech bros are going to decide if you’re a thrifty person or not? And only “savers” get the $5,000? Or the $32.83 or whatever the figure is? The dividend is based on a form of morality, in other words? This is completely batshit, for a variety of reasons.
In a recent social media exchange, Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, hinted at the possibility of issuing $5,000 checks to American taxpayers—a concept dubbed the ‘DOGE Dividend.’ This proposal, originating from investment firm CEO and DOGE adviser James Fishback, suggests allocating 20% of DOGE’s projected savings and distributing it to taxpaying households. Let’s assess what we know now.
Fishback introduced the ‘DOGE Dividend’ on X (formerly Twitter), proposing that a portion of DOGE’s anticipated $2 trillion in savings be returned to taxpayers in the form of $5,000 stimulus checks. “We wanted to help make DOGE real for millions of Americans. They deserve a portion of the savings DOGE will deliver under President Trump’s leadership,” Fishback said.
According to Fishback’s calculations, dedicating 20% of these savings would amount to $400 billion, translating to about $5,000 per household for the 78 million tax-paying households. Musk responded to this proposal by stating he would discuss it with President Trump.
Despite the enthusiasm surrounding the potential of a DOGE Dividends several significant obstacles exist:
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Congressional Approval: Any initiative to redistribute federal savings requires legislative authorization. Lawmakers may prefer allocating these funds to other priorities, such as reducing the national debt or extending existing tax provisions.
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Economic Implications: Budget experts caution in a MarketWatch report that distributing such substantial sums could exacerbate inflationary pressures, reminiscent of concerns raised during previous stimulus efforts. This would be especially ironic given that Republicans were the primary opponents of additional stimulus during the pandemic. Preston Brashers, a research fellow for tax policy at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, echoed this on X: “Love what DOGE is doing, but this is a bad idea. There’s no need to send ‘dividend checks.’ The dividend we get from slashing spending is that it brings inflation into check. But if the government sends out stimmy checks, inflation will come back with a vengeance.”
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Legal Challenges: DOGE’s very foundation is under judicial scrutiny, with ongoing lawsuits questioning its legality. The outcome of these legal proceedings could impact the feasibility of any proposed dividend.
The Broader Context Beyond The DOGE Dividend
The DOGE Dividend proposal emerges as the Trump administration explores various forms of tax relief. However, the cumulative cost of these measures, estimated by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget to be between $5 trillion and $11 trillion, raises concerns about fiscal responsibility and the potential for increased national debt. The DOGE Dividend may end up competing with other priorities of the Trump administration. These include campaign promises to eliminate taxes on tipped wages, Social Security benefits, and overtime.
Just at the broad brushstroke level it’s conflicting and nuts. And there is NO WAY that $2 Trillion can be saved without substantially gutting essential programs. That is the reality of the situation. But you see the play here: Trump wants to get people all excited with the chance for a $5,000 check, so that they’ll allow Musk to take a wrecking ball to the economy. That’s all this is. If MAGA is jumping up and down thinking King Donald is going to line their pockets, they’ll go along with anything.
But it brings to mind an interesting point: Why doesn’t Elon just give us all a million dollars? That would improve life for Americans, doncha think? A million bucks could sure help me out. That’s only $330,000,000 and he’ll still be the richest man in the world. I think that’s what should happen and forget about DOGE. Who’s with me?
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Friends, if you’re able to make a donation or buy a subscription, it will help us continue our work. I’m assuming that the Democrats will plug into political media again at some point, but since November things have been rough. Many thanks. Ursula
does this include Harris voter tax payers?
We’ll get our $5k in “Trump Bucks” which are redeemable only when purchasing official Trump branded merchandise from his website. Each “Trump Buck/Dollar” can knock a dollar of the cost of a given item – albeit no more than three can be used for any single item(s) purchase. The rest has to come with regular American dollars!
With the check to be signed personally by………
PS Does the DOGE dividend exist at all?
Paid in either Doge-coin or $TRUMP bucks…
Donald’s poll numbers are falling, so send a few grand to the rubes to shut us up.
Elon and his in-cell army, who are collectively known as the “doge-bags” are trying to make us believe they are trimming SO much waste/fraud/abuse (three words that describe DOGE to a tee) that we all get $5K, while the rich a-holes will get billions.
“Why doesn’t Elon just give us all a million dollars? That would improve life for Americans, doncha think? A million bucks could sure help me out. That’s only $330,000,000 and he’ll still be the richest man in the world.”
Might wanna recheck your math, Ursula. We have roughly 330 million people living in the US. So a million dollars times 330 million is going to be a LOT more than “$330,000,000”–in fact, it would be 330 TRILLION dollars–and not even the Muskrat has that much money. (If the Muskrat had that much money, he could buy out the whole government in one fell swoop considering the current government debt is “only” about $36.5 trillion.)
I’m sure there are plenty of folks in dumb-f–k Louisiana and other red states who think $5k is worth the destruction of democracy. They put a criminal in the WH over $14 (never saw that where I live) eggs. Then, when they’ve spent the money and prices for everything are through the roof, they might, might I say, figure out what a con it was.
Smerconish had James Fishback on this morning. He said the $5k Doge Dividend idea came to him in a dream. Then he said that he got together with his financial guy and they worked out the details in two hours. A viewer response suggested that the “dream” and “2 hours” descriptions perfectly describes everything Trusk are doing. Smerconish pointed out that the need is to reduce the deficit, so 100% of the Dividend, if any, should go to debt reduction. Fishback couldn’t / wouldn’t understand the urgent need for that.