DOGE dividend payments not likely to take shape, says Boston economist
President Donald Trump said he's considering sending $5,000 payments to taxpayers using money saved by DOGE but an economics professor at Boston University said the plan is not likely to work.
"There's even under consideration, a new concept where we give 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens and 20% goes to paying down debt," the president said from a summit in Miami. The payments would be similar to the stimulus checks sent to taxpayers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"A brilliant political move"
Some local economists are amused by the idea of "DOGE dividends," like Questrom School of Business Professor Jay Zagorsky.
"A brilliant political move. Right now, the Department of Government Efficiency has been getting a lot of pushback from a large number of groups," Zagorsky told WBZ-TV.
It wasn't hard to find critics of the so-called "DOGE dividends."
"We don't need it now," said Dana of Westport. "He's trying to bribe people into liking him. And it's like, I don't like him. I'm not going to be bribed into liking him. When we were in the pandemic, the people needed the money. Now, what's it for?"
"If we're really saving anything and it's just going right back out – that's not any kind of movement, that's just a sidestep," Tristen from Somerville said.
BU economist skeptical
Zagorsky said he's skeptical DOGE will be able to trim $2 trillion in government spending.
"I'm just not sure the savings are there," said Zagorsky. He added that he's worried it could make inflation worse for Americans. "And if we start mailing out large checks to large numbers of people, wow, that's going to put a big boost to inflation because Trump's putting out tariffs and tariff means more expensive goods and services."
"We're all human, I'm sure we'd all take it, but we'd complain about it all the same," said Tristen. "What can fix our problems? Is it money? I honestly don't know."