{"id":468,"date":"2025-02-23T22:49:06","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T22:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/02\/23\/trump-and-elon-musks-doge-dividends-might-not-benefit-low-income-americans-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-02-23T22:49:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T22:49:06","slug":"trump-and-elon-musks-doge-dividends-might-not-benefit-low-income-americans-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/02\/23\/trump-and-elon-musks-doge-dividends-might-not-benefit-low-income-americans-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Elon Musk’s ‘DOGE dividends’ might not benefit low-income Americans – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

James Fishback said the whole idea came to him in a recent dream: Send American taxpayers dividend checks<\/a> with whatever money Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency saves as it dismantles parts of the federal government.<\/p>\n

The idea took off on Tuesday when Fishback tweeted about it and Musk responded, <\/a>pledging to share the idea with Trump. The president himself promoted the specifics of Fishback\u2019s idea from the stage at the FII Priority Summit in Miami Beach on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s even under consideration a new concept where we give 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens, and 20% goes to paying down debt, because the numbers are incredible, Elon,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

But if Trump follows through with the plan as Fishback envisions it, low-income Americans may not benefit.<\/p>\n

Fishback, CEO of the investment firm Azoria<\/a> who briefly worked with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as DOGE was just getting off the ground, told NBC News in an interview that he awoke from that dream and, working with the lead researcher at his firm, composed a brief proposal to send millions of American households checks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fleshed this thing out in about two and a half hours,\u201d Fishback said Wednesday. \u201cWe sent it to [White House chief of staff] Susie [Wiles], sent it to some folks in the admin, sent it to some folks at Treasury, and here we are a day or so later, with it being shared with President Trump from Elon. And so it\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The episode illuminated the speed with which Musk can help draw the president\u2019s attention to seemingly random ideas \u2014 even one from a little-known 30-year-old investor \u2014 that are floating around on his social media platform X.<\/p>\n

Something like a \u201cDOGE dividend\u201d wouldn\u2019t be an entirely foreign concept to Trump; it follows the playbook of a pandemic-era program from his first term. Then, the government sent direct payments to Americans with the president\u2019s name attached.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president of the United States should sign the checks, and the checks should include the word DOGE, very simply, because we have to be honest,\u201d Fishback said, adding: \u201cIf I\u2019m the CEO of Azoria and I cut our employees a check every month, my name is on it. President Trump is the leader of the country, the duly elected president of the United States. His name should be on the checks. As should DOGE, because that is what\u2019s responsible for these savings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The difference during the pandemic was that people who made below a certain amount<\/a> all received the checks.<\/p>\n

In his proposal<\/a>, Fishback starts from the presumption that DOGE will achieve $2 trillion in cuts to the government. He takes 20% of those savings, or $400 billion, and divides them among 79 million taxpaying households, to receive $5,000 each. Importantly, the rebate would be sent only to households that are net-income taxpayers \u2014 people who pay more in taxes than they get back \u2014 with lower-income Americans not qualifying for the return. According to the Pew Research Center, most Americans who have an adjusted gross income of under $40,000 pay effectively no federal income tax<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since the dividend checks would be funded by dollars that have already been appropriated rather than the deficit-financed stimulus checks, Fishback writes, they would not worsen inflation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DOGE Dividend is different from past stimulus checks (e.g. 2021 American Rescue Plan) because only tax-paying households receive it,\u201d he writes. \u201cTax-paying households are more likely to save (not spend) a transfer payment like the DOGE Dividend as consumption is a lower share of their income. \u2026 There is nothing inflationary about paying off debt, saving for emergencies, or investing in college or retirement. In fact, debt paydowns are actually deflationary.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview, Fishback said the dividend only going to households above a certain income threshold should ease concerns about any inflationary pressure the rebates would cause, adding that the pandemic-era checks were sent \u201cindiscriminately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of low-income households essentially saw transfer payments of 25 to 30% of their annual \u2026 income,\u201d Fishback said, adding, \u201cThis exclusively goes to households that are net-payers of federal income tax, and what that means is that they have a lower propensity to spend and a higher propensity to save a transfer payment like the DOGE dividend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet even among Republicans, there is no consensus for sending Americans checks with money DOGE is able to save \u2014\u00a0the total amount of which is, so far, unclear. The group claims on its website that it has saved $55 billion so far, but some claims about its work have not stood up to the most basic scrutiny<\/a>. In one example, DOGE claimed to have saved $8 billion from a single canceled contract at the Department of Homeland Security. It turns out, that contract clearly stated it was for just $8 million.<\/p>\n

Musk initially pledged that DOGE would find $2 trillion in savings before the middle of next year, but has softened his expectations<\/a> since.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to actually figure out if any money is saved at all before promising people checks in the mail,\u201d said Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody\u2019s Analytics, adding: \u201cI thought this was about taking a crack at reducing our deficit. So if you give a dividend, that certainly doesn\u2019t help in that regard. It just feels like putting the cart way before the horse. I\u2019ve got the cart. I don\u2019t even see the horse yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the idea that the rebates will be reserved for American households above a certain income threshold, Zandi agreed that such a model would lead to a higher rate of receivers saving the payments rather than spending them immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re slicing a hair,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are things really on the margin. The broader point is \u2026 DOGE has got a long way to go here to see if DOGE saves anything and ultimately is a benefit for the economy or not before you start talking about dividend checks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the idea at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., did not appear warm<\/a> to the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, look. I mean, politically that would be great for us, you know. It gives everybody a check,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cBut if you think about our core principles, right, fiscal responsibility is what we do as conservatives. That\u2019s our brand. And we have a $36 trillion federal debt, we have a giant deficit that we\u2019re contending with. I think we need to pay down the credit card, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

From the stage at CPAC that same day<\/a>, Musk said he discussed the proposal with Trump and that the president is on board. Musk, the world\u2019s richest man who has become perhaps the single most influential presidential adviser, said \u201cit sounds like \u2026 that\u2019s something we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House declined to comment on the proposal.<\/p>\n

Fishback traveled to Washington this week and said he had a number of promising conversations on the proposal with stakeholders, though he would not divulge with whom. He did post a video<\/a> showing him having a brief conversation with Musk on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow look, for folks who want to criticize this plan and say, well, DOGE would never deliver $2 trillion in total savings, we disagree, but let\u2019s just assume that they\u2019re right on that,\u201d Fishback said. \u201cLet\u2019s say it\u2019s only $1 trillion. OK, so then the check goes from $5,000 to $2,500. Let\u2019s assume that it\u2019s only $500 billion. \u2026 Then the check is $1,250. That\u2019s real money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to tell you the truth here. It\u2019s not necessarily about the dollar amount,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s about the symbolism of the government sending money back in the form of restitution to compensate hardworking Americans, whether they\u2019re in East Baltimore or whether they\u2019re in East Palestine that the government misused and abused their hard-earned tax dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as Zandi noted, the cuts themselves do not come free of any potential economic consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like there\u2019s a free lunch here,\u201d he said. \u201cSo if you fire people, that\u2019s going to be a hit to the economy. That has a cost. You\u2019ve got to see exactly what the fallout of all this is on the broader economy, and that\u2019s just the near term. What about the longer term? You\u2019re making the assumption here, at least the implicit assumption, that the jobs you\u2019re cutting and the work you\u2019re scaling back really was not important, [that] there was no benefit from those folks working in the FAA or USAID or the FTC and FDA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a pretty strong position to take that these jobs have no benefit and no importance in the long run, that they\u2019re not doing things that are important to the well functioning of our economy and the nation,\u201d he added. \u201cI don\u2019t pretend to know, but I don\u2019t think anyone else knows that either.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n

Allan Smith<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Allan Smith is a political reporter for NBC News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Fishback said the whole idea came to him in a recent dream: Send American taxpayers dividend checks with whatever money Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency saves as it dismantles parts of the federal government. The idea took off on Tuesday when Fishback tweeted about it and Musk responded, pledging to share the idea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}