Posted on 02/20/2025 9:48:02 AM PST by Signalman
A “DOGE Dividend” could be coming to a mailbox near you, President Donald Trump has announced.
Savings resulting from work by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency should be, at least in part, returned back to taxpayers in the form of direct financial payments, Trump said aboard Air Force One on Wednesday. His answer came while responding to a similar proposal by Elon Musk, who said an equal part of the savings should go toward paying down the national debt.
“I love it,” President Trump said about Musk’s proposal. “A twenty percent dividend, so to speak, for the money that we’re saving by going after the waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Challenged about how much that might mean per taxpayer, Trump sounded an aggressive note.
“Could be a lot. I mean, if it’s twenty percent, we could give back a lot of money to the taxpayer,” he added, saying it would “give an incentive for the taxpayer to go out and report things to use where we can save money.”
To cap the one-month anniversary of the Trump administration, DOGE announced that it has already saved taxpayers a stunning $55 billion, according to The Hill. Much of those savings were achieved by canceling or renegotiating leases and contracts, selling assets, canceling grants, finding regulatory savings, making programmatic changes to the government, and reducing the workforce.
Shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development saved about $6.5 billion alone, Musk stated, while layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education achieved $502 million in savings. As evidence, DOGE has posted a “wall of receipts” on its website where visitors may view all savings to date; the evidence has also been shown by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt during several press briefings.
President Trump established DOGE on his first day in office to realize savings through the reduction of waste, fraud, and abuse, a legitimate problem in the federal bureaucracy that both Democrats and Republicans agree can be improved. However, the speed and scope of DOGE’s cuts have caused many Democrats to protest what they claim are heavy-handed tactics that will ultimately backfire on the Trump administration as it seeks to carry out basic government functions.
However, without a lever of power in Washington, the opposition party is largely powerless to stop Trump and Musk from running roughshod over agencies which they allege haven’t been audited in years. On Thursday the White House confirmed that 6,000 new agents at the Internal Revenue Service would be laid off, building on GOP efforts to stifle its ability to harass Americans during tax season.
The last round of direct government payments to Americans was under President Trump’s first term when approximately $814 billion in pandemic assistance was doled out in the form of checks. Last week the IRS touted a program to make whole a small subset of Americans who did not receive their $1,400 lifeline nearly five years ago, saying that about one million Americans who did not claim the Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2021 taxes are eligible.
When do I get my money? I want it before I go to Vegas.
Wow I didn’t know the covid checks added up to about a trillion $. Wow. I can’t see every taxpayer getting $5k then. They would bankrupt us more than we already are.
Right now the number being kicked around is $5k per taxpayer.
I’m am not rich and live on my Social Security check augmented with my savings. Still, for my kids and grandkids sake, I’d rather see us pay down the Federal debt than disperse it. Sending X-dollars to taxpayers isn’t fair in the sense that some paid more taxes than others. It’s still a form of spending and the gov’t has to stop that habit. This is a good place to start.
“When do I get my money? I want it before I go to Vegas.”
When you file your 2025 return.
“It’s my money and I want it NOW.”
I think there’s too much money in the supply right now - that’s why things are inflationary.
This time around, I’d rather the money from DOGE go to lowering the deficit, to lowering the debt.
Maybe with the next round of cuts, make it 50% refund, 50% debt pay down.
Retire bonds with it; this payout will only cause more inflation. Nothing banksters hate more than when you retire your debt early.
There were 154 million tax returns filed for the 2022 tax year (rounded). Guessing these translate to 250 million people (broadly estimating the number of joint returns).
If DOGE saves $100 billion, 20% of that is $20B. Divvying it up evenly gives us...
$80 apiece. I wouldn’t make a lot of vacation plans ahead of time, but you can do the math from here: $1 trillion nets out at $800 each, and so forth.
I could really use that money. Here in California expenses are skyrocketing. Rents, Utilities, Car Insurance, Groceries, you name it. And $5/gallon gas is everywhere.
3 percent inflation is a big fat lie. More like 20%.
Yes. I do not think sending money out should have been mentioned. We were good for now. I would prefer they fixed healthcare, sending Obamacare into oblivion.
I too live off my govt check with a mortgage to boot. Biden’s inflation has really hurt me...and I could use the money
YES, the less of my money the government has the less it can waste or use for leftist activities.
Jasmine Crockett says people don’t need this because what are they gon do with 5000 dollars?
Her constituents haven’t been asked yet. LOL
So I was thinking, since Kamala voters don’t want the 5000 dollars, well maybe we could increase the Trump voter checks to 10000 dollars. Yeah, hell of a deal!
😆😆🤣🤣
“this payout will only cause more inflation.”
No change in money supply. It shifts the money/spending from the leeches to income workers.
Five thousand dollars is ALOT of money, especially for those on fixed incomes or lower income working. As long as it is not one if those “gifts” that the IRS taxes or demands back, it could be good.
“When do I get my money? I want it before I go to Vegas.”
Hopefully we don’t get it until the savings are clearly reflected in the government’s financial statements. The DOGE efforts must first of all reduce spending and debt.
Paul Harvey once quoted a man who won a huge amount of money. When asked what he would do with it, the man said he’d spend 90% of it in Vegas and ‘blow’ the rest of it.
Me too. But probably ain’t driving down until Sept.
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