Could President Donald Trump look to bolster the public’s view of his Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) by handing out free money to every American citizen?
After first being floated on social media, billionaire Elon Musk, who heads the agency, wrote that he would pass the idea of a “DOGE dividend” onto Trump.
The idea involves using 20% of the money saved by government through the deep cuts and slashes DOGE has made to the federal workforce to send a $5,000 to every American taxpayer.
The checks would no doubt be positioned as proof that DOGE has taxpayer interests at heart.
However, don’t count your DOGE funds before they’re sent out. Congress would have to approve any new tax refund check issued to the public.
Additionally, experts say $5,000 may be a pie-in-the-sky number and actual checks would likely be for much less money, citing the difficulty of finding the needed $2 trillion in savings needed to issue that amount of money back to Americans, according to CBS News.