He went on to say that — with $2 trillion in savings from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and 79 million tax-paying households — this payment would work out to about $5,000 per household, “with the remaining used to pay down the national debt.”
DOGE chief Musk — who has since stepped back from the role — responded by saying he’d share the idea with President Donald Trump. The president then promoted the idea onstage at a summit on Feb. 19.
So, can you expect a DOGE dividend check any time soon?
Who would be eligible?
Fishback’s proposal assumed that DOGE would achieve up to $2 trillion in cuts — but that doesn’t appear likely. Indeed, Musk revised the savings goal a few times from $2 trillion to $1 trillion and now $150 billion for fiscal year 2026.
If, however, DOGE was able to achieve $2 trillion in cuts, Fishback says 20% — or $400 billion — could then be divided among 79 million taxpaying households. That works out to $5,000 per household.
But his DOGE dividend would only go to households above a certain income threshold (those who don’t get a tax refund). In other words, lower-income Americans may not qualify.
Many Americans who have an adjusted gross income of under $40,000 owe little or no federal income tax, “especially after factoring in the effects of refundable tax credits, such as the child and earned-income credits,” according to the Pew Research Center.
Fishback says this makes the DOGE dividend different from the stimulus checks sent out as part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan during the COVID-19 pandemic — in which, he says, checks were sent out “indiscriminately,” according to NBC News.
It’s worth noting that a dividend isn’t the same thing as a subsidy. A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders, while a stimulus check is a payment made by a government to its citizens in order to stimulate spending and boost consumer confidence during times of economic hardship.
Coming up short
As of June 29, the DOGE website indicated that it has saved $190 billion through a “combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings and workforce reductions.” The amount saved per taxpayer is $1,180.12.
