The billionaire has said he will discuss the idea of refunding the money saved by the department’s cuts with President Donald Trump
The savings generated by federal spending cuts implemented by the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could be used for a a sizable one-time refund to all US taxpayers, DOGE head Elon Musk has suggested.
Since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on January 20, DOGE has been pressing ahead with budget and spending audits, along with job cuts across numerous federal agencies as part of a plan to reduce government spending by $2 trillion by 2026.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Azoria CEO and co-founder James Fishback pitched the idea to Musk to “make DOGE real for millions of Americans” and share a portion of the savings with the people as “DOGE dividends.”
Under the proposal, around 20% of the savings, or $400 billion, would be sent as tax refunds to US taxpayers, while the remaining 80% would be used to pay down the country’s national debt, which currently stands at over $36 trillion.
Fishback estimated that the US currently has 79 million tax-paying households, meaning that if his proposal were to go through, they could each receive a check of around $5,000.
He argued that DOGE dividends would work to compensate US taxpayers for the “egregious misuse and abuse of their hard-earned tax dollars that DOGE has uncovered” and incentivize people to report more instances of waste and fraud.
Fishback also argued that the initiative would help restore trust between the taxpayers and the government and increase “tax morale.
In response to Fishback’s idea, Musk replied on X that he would “check with the president” about the plan.
On Tuesday, DOGE released its first savings report in which it claimed to have generated an estimated $55 billion in savings due to its cost-cutting efforts.
Over the past several weeks, the department has cut through a number of federal agencies where it identified waste, fraud, error, and redundancies that were costing money. Earlier this month, DOGE announced that it had also saved more than $1 billion by cutting over 100 contracts related to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
