The money will come from the $2 trillion budget savings that the DOGE Ministry has sifted through from government agencies.
Fortune reports that Elon Musk will “talk to US President Donald Trump” about the idea of giving $5,000 to every US household from the $2 trillion in budget savings that DOGE has sifted through from government agencies.
In a Twitter-X post, billionaire Elon Musk said he would come up with the idea of a “DOGE Dividend” in response to a proposal by James Fishback, CEO and co-founder of investment firm Azoria.
According to Fishback’s calculations, if DOGE achieves its goal of saving $2 trillion, the US government could use 20% of this amount, equivalent to $200 billion, to redistribute to the people, which means $5,000 for each household.
The remaining 80% will be used by DOGE to pay down the national debt, which currently stands at over $36 trillion. Fishback’s calculations are based on 79 million households that have filed federal taxes.
DOGE’s official website claims that the agency has generated $55 billion from reviewing department budgets and saving the government money. However, many newspapers such as the New York Times have criticized the accuracy of this figure, for example, a supposed $8 billion DOGE savings was actually only $8 million.
In addition, Elon Musk’s move may face opposition from Parliament as many lawmakers want to use the savings to pay off the national debt, while others want the money to be used to extend the tax cut program for people that is about to expire.
For Fishback’s part, the money is not an “economic stimulus program” but simply a “compensation” to people when their tax money is misused.
“The criteria we care about is whether you paid your federal taxes. If you did, you deserve compensation. If you didn’t, it doesn’t matter. Taxpayers deserve compensation when they don’t feel they’re getting fair value for their tax dollars,” Fishback said.
