Billionaire Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), addressed attendees at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has endorsed a very unlikely scenario where if the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) manages to save $2 trillion in federal expenses by next year, one-fifth of that amount may be returned to taxpayers.
Should DOGE successfully execute its plan through budget cuts, each household could receive a check approximating $5,000.
However, financial experts argue that this ambitious target of saving trillions – nearly a third of the federal government’s annual budget – is extremely improbable.
DOGE’s savings as reported by Musk
Dig deeper:
James Fishback, founder of the investment firm Azoria Partners established at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, advocated for the idea on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, prompting Elon Musk to indicate he would “check with the president.” Fishback mentioned that there have been “behind-the-scenes” discussions regarding this matter with White House officials.
Musk claims his Department of Government Efficiency has thus far identified $55 billion in cuts — a minuscule portion of the $6.8 trillion federal budget. Nonetheless, DOGE’s public declarations have yet to substantiate the claimed savings, and its assertions regarding millions of deceased individuals fraudulently receiving Social Security benefits have been debunked.
Fishback advocates for the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to ascertain how much DOGE has saved. If DOGE manages to cut $500 billion by July 2026, he stated, checks would then be $1,250 instead of $5,000.
“We’ve uncovered significant waste, fraud, and abuse,” Fishback remarked in a discussion with The Associated Press. “We will hold accountable, pay restitution, and reframe the social contract between taxpayers and the federal government.”
Fishback favors distributing checks rather than solely applying the funds to reduce the deficit, believing this would motivate Americans to identify wasteful government spending “in their communities and report it to DOGE.”
July 2026
The DOGE proposal anticipates completing its efforts by July 2026. Once finalized, one-fifth of any savings could be allocated to approximately 79 million households that pay income taxes.
It’s important to note that about 40% of Americans do not pay income taxes and would therefore not receive a check.
Could additional stimulus checks contribute to inflation?
Trump and his economic team attributed inflationary pressures to the $1,200 stimulus checks distributed during the spring of 2021 under former President Joe Biden.
Despite this, Trump’s administration asserted that those checks would not affect inflation as they were funded through decreased government spending.
Kevin Hassett, head of the White House’s National Economic Council, explained that since those funds would have been spent by the government anyway, the consumer spending would effectively balance out. The stimulus checks under Biden and Trump during the pandemic were financed through the deficit, which can be more inflationary.
The counterpoint:
Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at Yale Budget Lab and an economist from the Biden administration, expressed that further government checks are “the last thing we need economically at this juncture.”
Tedeschi pointed out that the U.S. unemployment rate has significantly decreased since 2021, meaning that businesses may find it challenging to hire enough employees to accommodate the additional demand created by new checks. Labor shortages can lead to higher prices.
Source: Information for this article was sourced from The Associated Press and earlier reporting by LiveNOW from FOX. This story was reported from Los Angeles.
