House Speaker Mike Johnson criticized Thursday the idea of using Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) savings to send checks to Americans during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
James Fishback, an investment firm CEO, first proposed the “DOGE dividend” idea on X Wednesday, suggesting 20% of federal savings through DOGE should be returned to citizens via $5,000 checks. Elon Musk responded to the idea, saying he would “check with the president,” and President Donald Trump agreed to consider the proposal one day later.
“Well, look, politically that would be great for us — you send everybody a check, but if you think about our core principles, fiscal responsibility is what we do as conservatives. That’s our brand. We have a $36 trillion federal debt. We have a giant deficit that we’re contending with,” Johnson said. “I think we need to pay down the credit card.”
Will check with the President
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 18, 2025
Fishback’s four-page proposal estimates that 20% of his projected $2 trillion in eventual DOGE savings would go to taxpayers as direct rebates, approximately $5,000 per household.
While at an investment conference in Miami, Trump said that he would consider using the savings to “pay back” 20% to citizens and allocate another 20% toward reducing the national debt.
“There’s even under consideration a new concept where we give 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens, and 20% goes to paying down the debt, because the numbers are incredible,” the president said, indicating an openness to the plan.
Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett came out against the proposal during a Thursday segment on ABC News, asserting she doesn’t “know what $5,000 would do” for the average American.
“So no, we are not in the business of giving out money, and honestly, I don’t know what $5,000 will do for you if you are unable to find a job — because I am telling people, we are heading towards a recession because the United States government is the 15th-largest employer in the world,” the congresswoman said.
DOGE reportedly cut $55 billion in federal spending so far, with Musk stating during a January X broadcast that a $2 trillion reduction was a “best-case outcome” and his task force had a “good shot” at cutting half of that. The largest savings have come from U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Education, along with widespread terminations and resignations through Trump’s federal employee buyout program, which roughly 75,000 federal workers accepted, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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