- The DOGE stimulus check proposal, suggesting $5,000 payments to taxpayers, is contingent on the Department of Government Efficiency achieving $2 trillion in savings.
- The proposal, pitched by Azoria CEO James Fishback, suggests excluding low-income households who don’t pay federal income tax.
- The DOGE agency, tasked with cutting government spending, has faced scrutiny for inflated savings claims and revised figures.
- Congressional approval is necessary, and House Speaker Mike Johnson favors deficit reduction over direct payments.
President Donald Trump has said his administration is thinking about giving 20% of “DOGE savings” to taxpayers. Could you get a $5,000 DOGE stimulus check in Mississippi? Who qualifies?
The idea that the Trump administration might issue American citizens a cut out of reduced federal spending has been floated. But don’t rely on it.
It’s all a theory right now, and one proposal would keep low-income households from seeing any returns.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a budget that would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and plans for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over a decade. If approved, it would also raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion in two years and add about $3 trillion to the deficit over a decade.
The U.S. national debt totaled $35.5 trillion in the 2024 fiscal year.
The Department of Government Efficiency would need to recoup $2 trillion in savings to make the checks doable, and the department’s unofficial leader Elon Musk said that might not be possible in January.
Before any checks could be issued, Congress would have to OK the spending.
Here’s what we know about the timeline on DOGE checks so far.
What is DOGE?
Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office that rebranded the U.S. Digital Service, an arm of the executive branch, into the Department of Government Efficiency. Officially, it’s the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization.
Musk was later made a “special government employee.”
Multiple Democratic state attorneys general sued, challenging Musk’s authority and arguing his power to access data and make cuts to government funds violates the Constitution. The Appointments Clause says Congress must approve executive branch officers.
Trump had previously referred to Musk as the leader of DOGE, but a key change to DOGE leadership was announced after a filing in the suit said the world’s richest man isn’t in charge or an employee of the department, instead serving as a senior advisor to the president.
The judge declined to keep Musk from accessing sensitive records.
Recently, Amy Gleason was named the acting DOGE administrator.
Who suggested the DOGE checks?
Azoria investment firm CEO James Fishback pitched the concept on Musk’s social media platform X. He said they “should announce a ‘DOGE Dividend’ — a tax refund check sent to every taxpayer, funded exclusively with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE.”
“Will check with the President.” Musk said.
In a later speech, Trump cited hundreds of billions in savings and said, “We’re considering giving 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens and 20% to paying down the debt.”
More: Mississippi gets more federal funds than it pays in taxes. Here’s what that money gets you
Do DOGE cuts add up?
So far, DOGE has announced massive cuts that haven’t help up to fact checks. Some later get rolled back. It’s drawn criticism from both sides of the political aisle.
“DOGE has an unprecedented opportunity to cut waste and bloat,” Nat Malkus, a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, wrote in a blog post. “However, the sloppy work shown so far should give pause to even its most sympathetic defenders.”
In mid-February, the agency touted $55 billion in savings to taxpayers. The largest error in accounting on the “Wall of Receipts” inflated $8 million to $8 billion. But canceled contracts, real estate leases and grants actually accounted for $16.5 billion.
Musk also said they ended 89 research contracts at the Education Department costing $881 million. Later, DOGE adjusted that to $489 million. Analysis from New America, a left-leaning think tank, analysis determined the total was closer to $278 million.
As of Monday, March 3, the Wall of Receipts listed $105 billion in total savings. That includes canceling 13 Mississippi federal real estate contracts. Full fact checking of the March 2 update is not yet complete, and changes were made to the real estate section in the most recent data, stripping information about the type of contract and its use as compared to previously published information that listed what kind of office/agency used the facility or land.
Who could qualify for a check?
Fishback shared a four-page “DOGE dividend” proposal, saying it should only go to households that pay taxes and make above a specific income level. He said the plan was developed in about two and half hours before being sent to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and other members of the Trump administration.
“A lot of low-income households essentially saw transfer payments of 25 to 30% of their annual … income,” Fishback said about COVID-19 pandemic stimulus checks. “This 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.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 18% of Mississippi residents live in poverty. The median household income in the state is $54,915, and average income per person is $30,529.
The Pew Research Center estimates that most citizens with an adjusted gross income of less than $30,000 effectively pay no federal income tax. Refundable credits mostly benefit those who have lower incomes.
Could DOGE checks reach American citizens?
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has said he’d prefer the funds go toward paying down the national deficit.
Whether Congress will take up the proposal and what the final version of requirements could look like remain to be seen.
Contributing: Mike Snider, Joey Garrison, Zachary Schermele, Dian Zhang, Greta Cross, James Powel and Maria Francis
Bonnie Bolden is the Deep South Connect reporter for Mississippi with Gannett/USA Today. Email her at [email protected].
