There has been much discussion about the possibility of a stimulus check from the Trump administration’s DOGE arriving in your bank account. Will you receive a stimulus payment, a refund, or dividends, and where will this funding originate?
Americans recently received some insight into when a DOGE check could potentially be issued.
On Sunday, during a rally in Wisconsin, Elon Musk, the public face of the Department of Governmental Efficiency, answered questions regarding a potential DOGE stimulus check.
Here’s what the billionaire had to share.
What is DOGE?
The Department of Government Efficiency, formally known as the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, is a program initiated by Trump and headed by ‘special government employee’ Musk.
DOGE aims to decrease federal spending, simplify regulations, and modernize federal technology and software to improve government effectiveness and productivity.
What did Elon Musk say about a DOGE stimulus check?
The Tesla executive mentioned that the distribution of a stimulus from DOGE would need to go through a congressional vote.
“It’s somewhat up to Congress and maybe the president too, you know, as to whether specific checks are cut,” Musk stated.
He indicated that Americans would experience the benefits from the significant cuts his team is implementing through relief from inflation.
“As government spending becomes more efficient and decreases, the inflation tax is reduced,” Musk mentioned.
Who would qualify for the DOGE stimulus check?
The prospective refund would only be distributed to households that are net-income taxpayers—those who pay more taxes than they receive back—meaning lower-income Americans would not qualify, as reported by the news. The Pew Research Center notes that most Americans with an adjusted gross income below $40,000 effectively pay no federal income tax.
The suggested DOGE refund check would be allocated per household rather than to each individual taxpayer, including those receiving Social Security benefits that meet the income tax criteria.
Trump has not provided any further details regarding the possible ‘DOGE dividend’ or its level of certainty.
When can you expect a DOGE stimulus check?
At this time, there is no indication that DOGE will provide a stimulus check resulting from cost-cutting measures. Any potential stimulus payment issued by the U.S. government would need congressional approval. So, don’t anticipate a check in the near future.
When DOGE was introduced, it aimed to achieve savings of up to $2 trillion per year. DOGE claims that it has already saved $140 billion through government cuts, though this figure has yet to be verified.
According to WHYY.org, those numbers might not add up. “An NPR analysis of more than 1,100 contracts in the initial release suggests that DOGE’s ‘maximally transparent’ estimates still exaggerate its savings totals by billions,” WHYY.org reported.
The agency has implemented substantial cuts across multiple federal departments, resulting in widespread layoffs among federal employees. Affected departments include the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
— USA TODAY Network reporter James Powel contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared in the Austin American-Statesman: Are $5,000 DOGE stimulus checks on the way? Here’s what Elon Musk mentioned
