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There's been speculation about whether a stimulus check from the Trump administration's DOGE is coming to your bank account. Will you get a stimulus check, refund check, or dividend, and where would this money come from?
Americans received a partial answer regarding when a DOGE check might arrive.
On Sunday, Elon Musk, the face of the Department of Governmental Efficiency, was asked questions about a potential DOGE stimulus check during a rally in Wisconsin.
Here is what the billionaire had to say.
What is DOGE?
The Department of Government Efficiency, officially the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, is an initiative created by Trump and led by 'special government employee' Musk.
DOGE's mission was to reduce federal spending, streamline regulations, and modernize federal technology and software to enhance government efficiency and productivity.
What did Elon Musk say about a DOGE stimulus check?
The Tesla tycoon said that a stimulus distribution from DOGE would have 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 said.
Musk said that Americans would feel the impact of the broad and deep cuts his team is making in the form of relief from inflation.
"As government spending is made more efficient and spending is reduced, the tax by inflation is reduced," Musk said.
Who would qualify for DOGE stimulus check?
The potential refund would be sent only to households that are net-income taxpayers — people who pay more in taxes than they get back — with lower-income Americans not qualifying for the return, according to news reports. The Pew Research Center cites that most Americans with an adjusted gross income of under $40,000 effectively pay no federal income tax.
The proposed DOGE refund check would be issued per household rather than to each individual taxpayer, including those receiving Social Security benefits that meet the income tax requirements.
Trump hasn't shared any further specifics or details about the possible 'DOGE dividend' or its certainty.
When should you expect a DOGE stimulus check?
There is still no indication that DOGE will issue a stimulus check as a result of cost-cutting measures. Any form of stimulus payment issued by the U.S. government would have to be approved by Congress. Don't expect a check anytime soon.
When it was introduced, DOGE's effort was to save as much as $2 trillion a year. DOGE claims to have already saved $140 billion in government cuts so far, but the figure has not been verified.
According to WHYY.org, those figures don't add up. "An NPR review of the more than 1,100 contracts in that initial release finds that DOGE’s 'maximally transparent' calculations still overstate its estimated savings totals by billions of dollars," WHYY.org reports.
The agency has implemented significant reductions across various federal departments, leading to widespread layoffs of federal employees. Among the affected departments are 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 on Austin American-Statesman: Are $5,000 DOGE stimulus checks coming? Here's what Elon Musk said
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