President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been floating another round of stimulus checks, this time in the form of dividends from the Department of Government Efficiency’s potential spending cuts. If Trump were to legally reappropriate agency money into direct payments, he would need Congress to get involved.
So far, congressional Republicans aren’t sounding so keen on the idea.
“I would not support it,” House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole told reporters Tuesday when asked by NOTUS about the proposal. “People tell me it’s not inflationary, but it sure looks inflationary to me and it certainly was when we did that during COVID.”
That said, Cole steered clear of completely shooting down the idea, particularly if Trump really pushes it.
“Would I vote against it because of that? Not necessarily,” Cole said. “If the president made that decision, whatever. My argument would be, ‘Come on guys, we have a $2 trillion deficit and $36 trillion in debt.’ Most Americans would want us to deal with inflation, deal with the debt. That’s where my district would be on it.”
The idea originated from James Fishback, CEO of investment firm Azoria. Assuming that DOGE reaches its goal of $2 trillion in government spending cuts, Fishback proposed spending 20%, or $400 billion, on direct $5,000 checks to American households that pay federal income taxes. (This would be different from the COVID-era stimulus checks, which also reached lower-income Americans exempt from federal income tax.)
Musk went on to share the plan with Trump, who has expressed some interest in it, saying in February that the concept was “under consideration.”
The stimulus checks were a politically popular move during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which Trump capitalized on by putting his name on the payments. Years after then-President Joe Biden issued the third round of stimulus checks, he remarked that he was “stupid” to not sign them with his own name.
Republicans, who have long argued against cash welfare, were always wary of the approach, and ultimately voted against pandemic stimulus under Biden. Trump appears ready to sign more checks, however, putting a microscope on the Republican majority in Congress.
House Speaker Mike Johnson threw a bit of cold water on the idea during his remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, though he too acknowledged voters’ support for the checks.
“Politically, that would be great for us,” Johnson said. “If you think about our core principles, fiscal responsibility is what we do as conservatives. We have a $36 trillion debt and a giant deficit to contend with. I think we need to pay down the credit card.”
Other Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee told NOTUS they had similar holdouts.
“To me it makes more sense to put whatever we save towards the deficit, but it’s a conversation that’s worth having,” Rep. Celeste Maloy said. “My fear is that when we send stimulus checks, it causes inflation, which we’re trying to get down right now. If we save money, we should actually save it.”
“It really depends on what the savings are for me,” Rep. Riley Moore told NOTUS. “If there are a lot, it might make a lot of sense to bring some of that money back to the taxpayers of the country. But we’ve got to put a lot of that towards the debt.”
House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain weighed in, saying she’s neither a yes or a no, but that her “first priority is the credit card bill we need to pay.”
But at least one Republican on the Appropriations Committee doesn’t need convincing on a plan to get Americans’ money back to them.
“I absolutely support that,” North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards told NOTUS. “I think it is ultimately what we are all after up here is to reduce our spending and allow Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money. There’s lots of ways to return taxpayers’ money to them, and I’m open to them all.”
Across the aisle, Democrats questioned whether stimulus checks would be a worthwhile solution once Republicans’ proposed budget cuts hit Americans.
“If they go through with their $4.5 trillion cuts in the budget, we’ll be so devastated with Medicaid, with SNAP and with affordable housing cuts that they won’t have any money to pass off,” Rep. Jonathan Jackson told NOTUS.
Bobby Kogan, a former Biden White House adviser to the Office of Management and Budget, said once Americans feel the effects of Republicans’ spending cuts, the stimulus check by comparison would do little to help them in their daily lives.
“If you take them at their word that they’re giving 20% back of their savings, so far that’s like three bucks a person,” Kogan told NOTUS. “And you should contrast that with the losses that people have. Getting three bucks versus ‘now I’m allowed to be scammed by a bunch of banks.’ That sort of thing would showcase that people have gotten way worse off the services they’re cutting, like Social Security offices that are being closed.”
The likelihood of the plan depends on the money DOGE is ultimately able to save. Earlier this year, Musk himself cast doubt on actually being able to reach $2 trillion in cuts. In a January interview, he said the figure was a “best-case outcome,” and that there’s a “good shot” of actually cutting $1 trillion. The DOGE website currently estimates its savings at $105 billion, or $652.17 per taxpayer.
Democrats have brought dozens of lawsuits across the country challenging DOGE’s cuts, from firing and offering buyouts to federal workers to closing entire government agencies. Judges have ruled both in and out of the president’s favor, but most of these cases are still playing out in the courts.
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Calen Razor is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.