Musk says he'd look into DOGE stimulus checks
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Elon Musk plans to "check with" President Trump about a proposal to send Americans rebate checks with money saved through slash-and-burn DOGE cuts.
Why it matters: The proposal is for $5,000 "dividend" checks, a number that comes from Musk's original goal of saving the government $2 trillion via budget cuts.
Driving the news: The idea came from James Fishback, CEO of investment firm Azoria and an outspoken supporter of Trump and Musk's economic agenda.
- Fishback pitched that 79 million of the 132 million U.S. households should be eligible for 20% of the DOGE $2 trillion target, which comes out to $5,000 for each of those households.
- Musk responded to the proposal on X on Tuesday, saying that he would run it past Trump.
- "We wanted to help make DOGE real for millions of Americans. They deserve a portion of the savings DOGE will deliver under President Trump's leadership," Fishback said.
How feasible are DOGE dividend checks?
Between the lines: DOGE is unlikely to actually hit its $2 trillion goal and faces multiple legal challenges, as well as congressional roadblocks.
- Musk himself has backed off from that number, telling political strategist Mark Penn in an interview broadcast on X that $2 trillion was a "best-case outcome" and that he thought there was only a "good shot" at securing half of it.
💠Thought bubble from Axios's chief economic correspondent Neil Irwin: $2 trillion is impossible without eviscerating massive chunks of government that Americans rely on.
- It's hard to imagine Congress approving the kinds of spending cuts it would take to get anywhere close to that.
- Reconciliation instructions approved by the House Budget Committee last week incorporate $2 trillion in spending cuts — but that's over the next decade, not a single year. And it still may be too much for Republican moderates to stomach.
Flashback: Government-issued checks were popular for Trump in the early years of the pandemic.
- Former President Biden expressed regret over not putting his own name on relief checks sent out during his tenure.
