Elon Musk has expressed a curious interest in a proposal suggesting a $5,000 payment, referred to as the ‘DOGE Dividend,’ to be given to each American in order to exhibit the $55 billion in taxpayer money that has been saved.
On Tuesday, the Department of Government Efficiency disclosed that President Donald Trump managed to save an astounding $55 billion in just under a month, which is quite impressive.
DOGE claims the savings were found through a combination of detecting and deleting fraud, canceling contracts and leases, and selling assets.
Investment firm CEO James Fishback had an idea for how to make Americans aware of how much of their money was being saved.Â
The suggestion made was for ‘President Trump and @ElonMusk to jointly introduce a ‘DOGE Dividend’ — a refund check for taxes issued to every taxpayer, financed solely from a portion of the overall savings generated by DOGE,’ as outlined in a post.
Musk replied, curious, but said that he ‘will check with the President.’Â
Fishback added: ‘American taxpayers deserve a ‘DOGE Dividend’: 20% the money that DOGE saves should be sent back to hard-working Americans as a tax refund check.’Â
‘It was their money in the first place! At $2 trillion in DOGE savings and 78 million tax-paying households, this is a $5,000 refund per household, with the remaining used to pay down the national debt. Elon Musk, let’s do this! This is how we rebuild trust in our government.’
Elon Musk showed interest in an idea that would guarantee a $5,000 payment, or ‘DOGE Dividend,’ to every American to show off the taxpayer funds saved
The Department of Government Efficiency revealed Tuesday that President Donald Trump has saved taxpayers a staggering $55 billion in less than a month
The group – nicknamed the ‘nerd army’ – also ended grants, fired federal employees, changed some programs, and saved money with regulatory reforms.
‘DOGE’s total estimated savings are $55 billion,’ read a message on the official doge.gov website, citing data since February 17.Â
It said users of the website could expect updates twice a week, promising additional information and improvements with time.
The savings were mostly made in the US Agency For International Development (USAID), the Department of Education, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Agriculture.Â
Savings listed on the website features millions of dollars in canceled contracts for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training as well as ending subscriptions for Politico and other news organizations.
Elon Musk and DOGE’s efforts to reduce government waste continue to capture the headlines as Democrats and government workers are protesting in the streets about the cuts.
Trump has defended Musk’s efforts, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity that they talk frequently about the efforts by Democrats and the media to drive them apart.
‘It’s obvious, they’re so bad at it. I used to think they were good at it but they’re bad at it, because if they were good at I wouldn’t be president,’ he said.
Democrat protesters claim Musk is an unelected oligarch who should not be trusted to access data from the federal government.Â
On Monday, the White House clarified in court papers that Musk’s title was ‘senior adviser to the president’ and that he is ‘not the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator.’Â
‘In his role as senior advisor to the president, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors,’ the court filing noted, adding that he had ‘no actual or formal authority’ to make government decisions by himself.
Trump has endorsed Musk’s work as a result of his election mandate to cut government spending and reduce the federal workforce.
‘We got elected to, among other things, find all of this fraud, abuse, all of this horrible stuff going on,’ he said in the Oval Office last week.
