Most people might celebrate, go out to dinner, or even make a big purchase. Others might use it to pad their savings, pay down some debt, or make an investment. No matter what you’d decide to do with it, it’d probably be welcome. But perhaps the first thing you should do is wonder where and why that money came to you, and figure out if there are strings attached.
Why dabble in hypotheticals? Because sending out $5,000 checks was an idea recently floated at the high levels of government. DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, is a Department that was created in January under the new Trump administration, headed by none other than Elon Musk. The goal of DOGE was to go through the huge federal budget and find ways to save money. Specifically, it’s looking for things to cut, claw back, or shrink.
And with the money it’s saving, the idea was to send some of that back to the taxpayers in the form of a “DOGE Dividend.” That would be a $5,000 check.
The “DOGE Dividend”
Now, the federal budget is really big—it was roughly $6.75 trillion in 2024. And we overspent by $1.8 trillion, which is commonly called the “budget deficit.” So, we’re spending more than we’re taking in, as a country. That’s not good, and it’s leading to a growing national debt, which is currently more than $36 trillion. With that in mind, DOGE has yet to do much—it’s made a lot of waves, but hasn’t cut much money at all. Maybe a few billion. That’s far from its promised $2 trillion when the idea was first conceived.
But the big issue with the DOGE Dividend? It’s counterproductive to DOGE’s goal. If DOGE manages to save money, but then sends that money out, it hasn’t shrunk the deficit at all, or shrunk the national debt. In fact, cutting and sending those checks would cost money, too, and could add to the deficit and debt. It would be counterproductive.
A Bad Idea?
So, if you received one of those checks at some point, how would you feel? Probably happy—again, who couldn’t use some more cash? But you’d also be contributing to the problem; we all would. Would it be much use to not cash the check? Not really—it’s a very strange and flummoxing situation.
But you likely shouldn’t count on getting a DOGE Dividend check either way. While some in government may think it’s a good idea, others certainly won’t—and Congress would need to pass a law to make it happen, which it is unlikely to do. It would also likely lead to more inflation, which is the last thing anyone wants.
So, it may be fun to think about having a few extra thousand dollars in your pocket, but money doesn’t fall out of the sky. And if you did get it, would you use it wisely? Save it? Invest it? Or would you rush out and make some impulsive purchases? It can be a fun thought experiment!
