President Donald Trump has drawn the “Doge Dividends” to American taxpayers, drawing from the cost savings that his government's efficiency achieves by aggressively reducing federal spending and employment. He said he is considering distributing the
But Congress is skeptical. And it's not clear that Doge's strategy actually occurs near savings for IT projects.
Billionaire Elon Musk came up with the idea of Doge's dividend based on suggestions from users of social platform X last week. By Wednesday, Trump said he was considering dedicating 20% of Doge's cost cuts to Americans, and 20% more to pay off citizen debt.
Trump may view the proposal as a way to boost his approval rating. He slipped after taking office. During his first term, Trump is famous for signing his name to an adult pandemic stimulus check sent to Americans.
But even Republican lawmakers are hesitant to support the proposal at this point. The proposal must be approved by Congress as part of ongoing budget negotiations.
Some suggest that they consider it. Business Insider reported Friday that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wanted to see more details before committing, and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) instead made Doge through a child tax credit said he likes to be redistributed.
However, other Republicans have been openly critical of the idea, suggesting that paying back national debt should take priority over sending checks to Americans. They include House Speaker Mike Johnson, North Carolina Sen. Tom Tillis and Missouri Rep. Eric Burrison.
“If we think about our core principles, then rightly, financial responsibility is what we do as conservatives. Johnson told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday. “And We have $36 trillion in federal debt. We have a huge deficit that we are fighting for. You think we need to pay off your credit card, right?”
Trump cannot afford many Republican asylum given his narrow majority in the House and Senate. Even if Doge saves enough money to make them possible, it's unlikely that Doge's dividend will pass.
Can Doge's cost reduction targets be achieved?
The original dividend proposal assumes Doge will ultimately achieve $2 trillion in savings, with 20% of those savings being taken over by US taxpayers, resulting in a $5,000 tax rebate for each household. Masu. However, finding $2 trillion to trim would be difficult, if not impossible.
As of Monday, Doge claims it has achieved $55 billion in savings, citing the so-called receipt wall. However, news organizations, including CBS, The New York Times and Politico, pointed out key accounting errors in Doge's calculations, exaggerating their savings by billions of dollars.
To maintain its promise of cost-cutting, Doge almost certainly has to find ways to cut social security, Medicare and defense budgets and reduce interest on national debt. Expenditures in these categories account for more than $4.8 trillion in the 2024 fiscal year's federal budget of $6.9 trillion.
Trump had previously committed to not touching on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, but later approved the Republican budget plan, which includes deep cuts to Medicaid. It is not clear whether he will consider additional cuts to other major qualification programs to meet the cost-cutting targets set by Musk and his team.
