No $5,000 DOGE Check? The fallout from Musk’s departure and its impact on low-income citizens

Elon Musk made big promises when he followed Donald Trump to Washington to head up the Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE, effort. The tech billionaire said that he would be able to cut $2 trillion of “wasteful” federal spending.

An idea was floated by Azoria CEO James Fishback that DOGE could take a cut of those savings and send 79 million “tax-paying households” a $5,000 check that both Musk and Trump ran with. However, those Americans that liked the idea and thought it could become a reality would be wise not hold their breath while waiting for it.

No $5,000 DOGE Check?

Musk and his team made a big show of how much they were “saving” posting billions of dollars in cuts on DOGE’s ‘Wall of Receipts’. However, upon investigation, multiple news outlets found that the numbers were wildly inflated, filled with accounting errors or were savings from programs that had ended before Trump took office.

As the chainsaw-wielding frontman of DOGE approached the 130-day legal limit on special government employees, he announced that he would be leaving. He and Trump at a news conference tried to spin the billionaire’s efforts as a success but in the end Musk’s DOGE has only managed to cut around $175 billion according to the pseudo-agency’s figures.

That figure could be pared down as well, as rulings come in on lawsuits that aim to block some of DOGE’s actions. Furthermore, the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service estimates that DOGE’s cost cutting will actually cost the government at least $135 billion.

As well, DOGE could rack up more costs to cover more legal fee related to the lawsuits that have been filed or new ones as it continues its work.

Not only are the very little savings to show for DOGE’s actions that would scupper the chances of any checks going out, but Congress would have to approve them. Several lawmakers have already spoken out against the idea.

While Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference, “politically, [a DOGE Dividend check] would be great for [Republicans],”he also said it would go against the party’s “core principles” of “fiscal responsibility.”

“That’s our brand and we have a $36 trillion federal debt,” he added. “We have a giant deficit that we’re contending with. I think we need to pay down the credit card, right?”

Programs that help low-income Americans tossed in the woodchipper

While the ‘E’ in DOGE is supposed to stand for ‘efficiency’ Richard Levins, a professor emeritus of applied economics at the University of Minnesota, argues that it should stand for ‘elimination’. He takes issue with Musk bragging about feeding government programs “into the woodchipper” and that his “antics have nothing to do with ‘getting more with less.’”

“Eliminating a government function doesn’t make it more efficient,” he wrote.

DOGE targeted a number of social programs that assist some of the most vulnerable members of American society including the elderly, disabled and those with low-incomes. For example the entire staff at the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which provides assistance with heating and cooling costs for low-income families, was fired as part of sweeping cuts to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The cost cutting efforts have also led to massive layoffs at other agencies that administer programs and essential services that help low-income Americans with child care, elderly care, food assistance and housing. Over 7,000 employees were fired at the Social Security Administration causing concern that the agency, which was already understaffed, will have difficulties going forward as its case load continues to grow.

And Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ working its way through Congress is set to inflict deeper cuts to programs that assist the public in order to give the wealthy a tax cut while inflating the deficit.

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