Posted on 02/28/2025 1:34:06 AM PST by Libloather
The proposal for a “DOGE dividend,” which would distribute 20% of government savings to taxpayers, has gained support from President Trump and Elon Musk — and now it could potentially be enshrined in law, The Post has learned.
The 28-year-old hedge fund manager behind the idea, James Fishback, told The Post he met with Elon Musk last week and began meeting with lawmakers about his idea earlier this week.
“The president supports this and Elon likes the idea of incentivizing people to report waste, fraud, and abuse,” Fishback told me. “The proposed bill will be coming in the next few days.”
He added, “This approach will save taxpayers even more money — it would compound the returns that doge is finding.”
Under Fishback’s proposal, households that are net taxpayers — those who pay into the government more than they receive in benefits — would receive 20% of all DOGE’s saving.
Another 20% will go to paying down the national debt and the other 60% would likely be allocated to the budget each year (Fishback doesn’t explicitly state that).
According to his math that would mean roughly 79 million households would get a $5,000 check each if Musk is able to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget he’s estimated he can trim.
Fishback has previously suggested the first check would come when DOGE terminates in July 2026, but if it become law before then, he said, Americans could get a check even sooner.
The idea gained traction after Fishback initially posted about the idea on X.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The Libs will loath this for sure, Libloather They detest any idea that “gives” back “the government’s” money to its original owners. Their new talking points will be distributed soon for all Libs to mimic like demented parrots. They’ve beat to death the egg inflation meme this week and need to hatch something new. The tax cuts for billionaires meme is lame too. How many billionaires are greedily anticipating getting a $5000 rebate? I haven’t checked my online banking yet today, but yesterday I wasn’t a billionaire. I can think of multiple things I could use $5000 to fund. Most taxpayers would love it.
If the Radical Left Wing came up with this idea, this web-site would be up in arms about it. And rightfully so.
A bad idea is a bad idea, no matter who dreams it up. This all sounds like an alcoholic or drug addict planning on what they spend their money on after they stop being an alky or druggie.
Dividends can happen from future surpluses, AFTER the federal government gets the federal debt to zero. FIRST, the feds have to show that they can control their spending habits. That's a long way off in the future, if at all.
doing the math, if you give every taxpayer $5000 it would completely bankrupt the U.S.
Perfect idea to engage the public in supporting the downsizing of government so that it continues.
Returning 20% of the savings uncovered by DOGE will not bankrupt the government. There are multiple reasons why President Trump and Elon are considering this. The rebate checks would attract massive support for DOGE from many who are not supportive now. This would encourage the exposure of more fraud and waste and generate additional savings. A $5000 savings could multiply to $10,000 or more. The $5000 will be distributed to productive people (the ones who pay taxes) and would be spent, increasing future tax revenues. A dividend would also help Republicans hold their razor-thin margin of control in the mud-term elections. If control of Congress is lost in the mid-terms, President Trump’s agenda is toast. DOGE will be a dead dog.
This “DOGE dividend” is a dumb idea. The money should be applied to the national debt, not handed out as bread and circuses.
Think about this. If you as a taxpayer pay in lets say $10K per year in taxes,a $5k rebate would reduce your liability to only a $5k tax debt.
There will be one way to tell.
Congress gets rid of baseline budgeting.
Until that happens...
Well, Deep State won’t be delenda est in a day.
So victims of theft shouldn’t have their property returned to them...?
Hint: We can multitasking. Cut, grow the economy, pay down the debt while returning more of people’s money to them.
In fact, that’s the smartest way to do it.
...We can multitask...
I like returning some of it to taxpayers to keep public support going for DOGE. Say 5 or 10%. But the rest, I agree, should be to pay down the debt instead of reallocated to “smarter” spending.
The government got trillions of cash advance on credit. Now instead of paying down the amount owed they’re thinking how to divvy up the cash advance on credit. Very very poor basic financial management.
The government got trillions of cash advance on credit. Now instead of paying down the amount owed they’re thinking how to divvy up the cash advance on credit. Very very poor basic financial management.
A rebate sounds good, but not a dime until that debt clock starts to run backwards.
The problem is this isn't the government's money, nor is it the taxpayers money, it's the creditor's money who are owed $36 trillion.
See the next comment by Bernard for reasons why this is one of the worst ideas to emanate from the DC cesspool.
Your analysis is totally logical.
The problem is we have a congressional election in 2026.
Voters need proof the savings happened—and long boring position papers is not going to get it done.
The money in their bank account will speak louder than a million words.
60% each year to cut the deficit, 20% for chipping away at the $36T debt, and 20% returned to the 78M actual taxpayers.
I agree that a cut of 1/390-millionth of any actual savings may not be a great incentive for reporting waste, fraud and abuse.
Paying down the debt will lower interest rates and lower inflation.
That’s WAY BETTER than sending out checks
The price of votes keeps going up and up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.