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US President Donald Trump has floated the idea of giving Americans a portion of the savings made from DOGE’s sweeping cost-cutting crusade.
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US President Donald Trump said he’s considering returning 20% of the savings made by Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to Americans.
“Under consideration [is] a new concept where we give 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens,” Trump said on stage at a Miami summit for finance and tech executives hosted by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.
He added another 20% of savings from DOGE’s cut-cutting could be used to pay down the country’s national debt — which is now over $36 trillion.
🚨 PRESIDENT TRUMP: “There’s even under consideration a new concept where we give 20% of the @DOGE savings to American citizens.” pic.twitter.com/fV8cXCtUQ9
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 19, 2025
DOGE’s website claims to have saved an estimated $55 billion through various measures, including canceling government contracts and laying off government department staffers.
However, that figure can’t be verified as the site says that the over 1,000 canceled contracts and leases listed on the site are “a subset” of what DOGE claimed it has canned so far — which it said is equal to “20% of overall DOGE savings.”
The figures DOGE has listed in the contracts have also come under scrutiny. The New York Times reported on Feb. 18 that the site listed canceling a single $8 billion contract, which was actually worth $8 million.
However, DOGE said in a Feb. 19 X post in response to the report that it “has always used the correct $8M in its calculations.”
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In a Feb. 19 X post, Musk said he pitched Trump “a tax reduction linked to DOGE savings.”
The Internal Revenue Service reported in April that it received over 163.1 million individual income tax returns in the 2023 financial year.
Assuming that DOGE’s headline $55 billion figure is accurate and there are roughly the same number of individual taxpayers, it would mean each would get less than $67.50 if the savings were passed on today.
It would also mean using 20% of the savings toward the national debt — which would currently be $11 billion — would help wipe off just 1.3% of the $839.5 billion deficit the US government has run up this fiscal year, which started in October.
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This article first appeared at Cointelegraph.com News
