If there’s one hot button issue regarding DOGE from within the Pro-Trump Republican crowd, it’s the issue of DOGE STIMULUS checks.

Even that word “stimulus” immediately creates backlash — which I agree with.

To set the record straight, what President Trump and Elon Musk have talked about sending out to American households soon would not truly be “stimulus” checks according to the historic nature of such checks.

In other words, the funding wouldn’t derive from a Congressional spending bill borrowing directly from future tax dollars, supported simply by an uptick in the money printing machines (virtual though they may be).

If what is being called DOGE “Dividend” Checks actually materialize, they would instead be exactly that — a dividend of the savings produced by DOGE’s cost-cutting efficiency work.

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Nevertheless, the issue remains a contentious one, even among MAGA and Republicans as a whole.  (I’m on the fence myself, honestly.)

The question isn’t simply how these checks would be funded, but whether or not any portion of them should be used for any purpose OTHER than paying directly towards the national debt.

But the reality of those fabled DOGE Dividend Checks could be on the horizon, as there have been talks involving Congressman regarding legislation to make them a reality.

President Trump initially created a stir with the possibility of sending 20% of the savings created by DOGE directly into American households back in February.

James Fishback is the CEO of investment firm Azoria, who initially envisioned the concept of a DOGE savings payment directly to taxpaying American households.

After he posted his idea on his X account, Elon responded and made good on his promise to bring up the idea with the President.

Not long after, President Trump mentioned the plan publicly and identified 20% of DOGE’s savings as the likely amount, according to the New York Post:

 

Trump floated the potential refund after Musk tweeted Tuesday that he would “check with the President” in response to a post from investor James Fishback, who has been advocating the concept.

It’s unclear precisely how much DOGE has saved to date, but Musk has stated a goal of $1 trillion in annual cost cuts as his 100-person team blazes through the federal bureaucracy, effectively closing some agencies, mass-firing employees at others and canceling contracts deemed wasteful.

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Musk’s initiative has halted operations at the $50 billion-a-year USAID foreign aid agency and begun the process of dismissing most of its 10,000 employees while beginning to dismantle the 1,700-person Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has $712 million in funds, the fate of which is in limbo.

Fishback, the advocate of a DOGE dividend, argues that $2 trillion in savings over two years would amount to roughly $25,000 per taxpayer. The proposed 20% dividend would then amount to $5,000 per taxpayer.

Just a few days later, Elon was asked about the possibility of DOGE checks.

Speaking at CPAC, Musk made clear that the idea had gained traction and would likely become reality.

Here’s a clip of Elon talking about the potential checks while interviewed on the CPAC stage by Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt:

The architect of the idea of sending out DOGE checks initially specified that the plan would be to divide up 20% of DOGE savings from this year.

The result would be a $5,000 dollar Dividend Check sent to every American taxpayer, as he described to Fox News on the video below:

Now, both the Trump Administration and Fishback are revealing signs that the likelihood is increasing those DOGE Dividend Checks could come to fruition sooner rather than later.

Fishback recently shared this screenshot of an email, apparently from the Trump Administration, attempting to conduct polling to ensure a DOGE Dividend Check is what people actually want to happen!

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Here’s the full image for clarity:

Fishback has even stated that he is in discussions with six Senators about a bill to make the DOGE checks a reality.

Coupled with the polling to find out whether or not people would “accept” a DOGE Dividend Check if one was sent out, in a move apparently meant to test the waters for a push in that direction…

It certainly appears that DOGE Dividend Checks could happen much sooner, rather than later.

I also want to applaud the Trump Administration for conducting that polling, considering the non-trivial amount of pushback against sending out those checks, even within Republican circles.

For example, Speaker Mike Johnson has echoed the more fiscally conservative view that no payments based on “savings” should be sent out as long as the national debt is still as high as it is, according to Newsweek:

Earlier this year, James Fishback, CEO of investment company Azoria, proposed that savings made by DOGE’s widespread federal government cost-cutting efforts should be shared with the American public. He suggested that a tax refund check be sent to every taxpayer, funded exclusively with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE.

His idea caught the attention of DOGE head and President Donald Trump adviser Elon Musk, and since then the president has expressed interest in the idea as well. Such payments being sent to households in the U.S. would be a first since coronavirus-era stimulus checks, which began during the tail end of Trump’s first administration.

On X, formerly Twitter, Fishback posted a screenshot of an email with the subject title “DOGE dividend check?” It includes a picture of President Trump and a Trump/Vance banner.

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The contents asks respondents to fill out a poll, which asks: “Would you accept a DOGE dividend check signed by Trump?”

“I have ongoing discussions with folks in the administration, and I’ve had ongoing discussions with folks on the Hill,” Fishback said in an interview earlier this month.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, “Politically that would be great for us, you know, it gives everybody a check. But if you think about our core principles, right, fiscal responsibility is what we do as conservatives. That’s our brand. And we have a $36 trillion federal debt, we have a giant deficit that we’re contending with. I think we need to pay down the credit card, right?”

I have often found myself on the opposing side of a financial issue from Speaker Johnson.

And as much as I would LOVE to cash that $5K check — I have to admit that the PRINCIPLE Speaker Johnson is basing his argument on is air tight.

Principally, you can’t go wrong on paying down the national debt.

At the same time, a 20% cut going straight out to American taxpaying households would not be a BAD thing — and it would definitely be warranted.

So, when could we see these checks… and who would qualify?

The initial word on timing was sometime next year, after DOGE finishes its work and is basically dissolved.

But with talks ongoing now among Congressmen, the possibility that something could be spun up much faster based on the savings already created by DOGE is looking like a possibility.

Fishback said there could be a bill “soon”, according to the Newsweek article I referenced previously:

I spoke with six U.S. senators this past week and continue those conversations to get feedback. And it’s been overwhelmingly positive. The next step is there’s going to be a bill, and the bill is coming very soon.” (Emphasis added.)

In terms of who is eligible, the jury is still out on that since no bill has been filed with those specifics.

But we can look back at the original plan created by Fishback to understand who would likely qualify.

In a nutshell, the answer is… taxpayers.

That doesn’t mean that everyone who FILES taxes would receive a potential DOGE check, but rather those who make somewhere over a $40K and actually pay in a net amount of taxes yearly.

In other words, individuals who regularly receive a tax REFUND will likely not receive these DOGE dividend checks.

At least, that is the common understanding at the moment, as related in this CBS affiliate report on exactly that question:

Although that report specifies a likely reduction from the original $5K estimate, it seems far more likely that DOGE will remain on schedule in achieving it’s $1 Trillion cost-cutting goal; meaning any potential checks would also likely hit the expected $5K zone.

Fishback also spoke recently with NewsNation, giving his expanded assessment based on talks with Senators that something could happen very soon to push the DOGE checks forward.

Elon Musk, appearing alongside members of the DOGE team, also gave an interview last night with Fox News’ Bret Baier, during which he put the current cost-cutting at around $130 billion.

That’s about $870 billion shy of the $1 trillion savings target that Musk has set as a goal, with a little over 2 months of DOGE work under their belt, according to a report in USA Today:

Still waiting on the $5,000 dividend check from DOGE or will it be less? Here’s the update on what to know about the status of the stimulus and whether you make enough income to qualify to receive it. Will it be a check per individual or per household? Here’s some fact-check answers to the DOGE check questions.

In an interview with FOX News Bret Baier, Musk and the DOGE team discussed the timeline to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion through cutting wasteful government spending and eliminating fraud that they may find and impacts to social security. DOGE claims to have saved approximately $130 billion thus far, estimating that savings to be over $800 per taxpayer.

In a recent interview with NewsNation, Fishback said he was “optimistic a bill is forthcoming to put President Trump’s vision for DOGE coming full circle into law.” Adding, “It isn’t just enough … to identify waste, fraud and abuse. We have to refund the taxpayer their hard-earned money when their money was wasted and misused, and that’s what the DOGE dividend calls for.”

Fishback described meetings with lawmakers in the House and Senate as “very productive” and said a plan may be revealed soon.

Fishback’s four-page proposal of the ‘DOGE dividend’ described it as a refund “sent only to tax-paying householders.” Noting the difference from past stimulus checks, he added that DOGE checks would not be inflationary as they would be “exclusively funded with DOGE-driven savings, unlike COVID stimulus checks which were deficit-financed.”

For his part, Elon contends that DOGE is currently on track to complete its mission to find $1 trillion in savings in the 130 days that he is legally allowed to operate as a “Special Government Employee”.

During that interview, he also highlighted the CASUAL waste — to the tune of billions — the DOGE team consistently encounters during their work.

You can watch Bret Baier’s interview with Elon Musk and multiple DOGE staffers here:

At the end of the day, I’m still not sure where I stand on the potential for a DOGE Dividend Check.

Obviously, it’s OUR MONEY.  So why not just take it, if they are willing to send it back to us!?

I get that argument.  Again… part of me agrees.

But there’s another part of me that knows the true definition of ‘fiscal conservativism’ would ALWAYS put paying down debt ahead of dividing up a dividend, of any kind.

With the ‘test’ email sent out referenced by Fishback, presumably to test the waters on potential checks, it seems more and more likely that this idea will end up becoming a reality — and possibly sooner than the originally expected 2026 date, if Fishback’s information turns out to be reliable.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
 

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