'DOGE Dividend' check is very reasonable: DOGE advisor behind it | CUOMO (video and narrative transcript)
youtube/newsnation ^ | Chris Cuomo & James Fishback
Posted on 02/20/2025 5:37:54 AM PST by RoosterRedux
Chris Cuomo: Elon Musk didn’t even come up with the idea that’s now being called the “Doge Dividend.” It should be called the “Fishback Discount.” That’s the guy who came up with it. It came from James Fishback, an investor who’s one of the advisers to DOGE. He said, “You know what we should do? When we save all this money, we should give some of it back to the American family. Once we hit our $2 trillion target, it’ll be $5,000 each.”
“Sounds great,” Musk said. “I’ll take it to the President.” So, Musk brought it to President Trump, who loved the idea. Remember during the pandemic, Trump wanted to sign everybody’s check? Wasn’t even his money. Won’t be this time either. But what a great idea.
The question now is: can they do it? Should they do it? Let’s bring in the man who deserves the credit for the idea—James Fishback.
“Could you have ever imagined when you first suggested this idea that you’d be here now, discussing why President Trump is saying this is now definitely going to happen?”
“Well, Chris, good evening. It is humbling and an honor to have the president’s endorsement on the idea. I’m appreciative of the credit, but I gotta tell you the truth: the credit goes to President Trump. DOGE—this savings—would not be possible without his leadership. We put it to paper, but President Trump is going to be the one to execute it, and he deserves the credit for it.”
“So, James, Bill O’Reilly doesn’t want a check. I want a check. I’ll take his check. Don’t know how it works. But here’s the thing—as you know, right? You’re an investor, and when you sit at the table, people want you to under-promise and over-deliver. Okay? Why? Because then they’re happy with the surprise. Here, isn’t there concern that setting that target of $2 trillion is way too high, and that people are going to think they’re going to get five grand, but if you don’t get the $2 trillion, they don’t get the five?”
“Well, it’s interesting, Chris. I don’t think it’s actually too high. I think it’s totally reasonable. But here’s the thing—the Doge Dividend check that President Trump endorsed today? That is going to help us get to the $2 trillion. And here’s why: we’re going to incentivize everyday Americans—whether they’re in East Palestine or East Baltimore—to step up and say, ‘There’s waste. There’s fraud. There’s abuse in my community.’ Report it to DOGE. Why? Because the more money DOGE saves, the bigger the Doge Dividend check is.”
“Chris, look at how successful DOGE's been under Trump’s leadership with just Elon Musk and a dozen engineers eating Chick-fil-A and drinking Red Bull, sleeping in the office. Now, imagine deputizing 100 million Americans to be the eyes and ears on the ground. When I was growing up, I took my grandfather—a World War II vet—to the VA for his checkups. I’m not going to lie to you—I saw waste. I saw fraud. I saw abuse. But I didn’t have DOGE to report it to, and I didn’t have an incentive to report it. That’s not the case with the Doge Dividend. Every American can step up, report fraud and abuse to DOGE directly via text, and we’ll see the savings go up. Hit $2 trillion, and we’ll see the checks dispersed next summer. And absolutely, President Trump’s name and signature should be on it because this would not have been possible without his leadership.”
“I like the idea, obviously, of finding waste, fraud, and abuse. And I like the ‘See Something, Say Something’ extension. As you know, there are lots of different places people can go to alert the government to what’s going on. Whether or not they do anything about it is another matter. You’re promising that DOGE will be different. My other question is: isn’t the point, though, what Musk brought up later in the day after the first flush of this idea—which is that this has got to go towards the fiscal crisis that this country is in? Everybody wants a check, of course. I’m not saying no to a check. But what matters more—sending a check to people or lowering the deficit and trying to make a dent in the trillions and trillions that we owe in debt?”
“We can do both. We absolutely can do both, Chris. We’re $37 trillion in debt, which is why our proposal calls for 80% of that savings to go to paying down the debt and only 20% going directly to taxpayers. Let’s not forget—this isn’t a handout. This was taxpayers’ money that was sent to D.C. in the first place. It wasn’t sent to D.C. to then be quickly sent to Milan for a DEI musical or to Colombia for a transgender opera. It was sent to D.C. to support Americans. And guess what? The American heartland is crumbling. Our roads and bridges are in despair, and veterans everywhere you look are being denied essential healthcare. So the American people deserve compensation—they deserve restitution. That’s the first point.”
“The second point is we need to restore the trust between the taxpayer and their government. We can never balance the budget if the taxpayer feels cheated. And guess what—they do. Given what DOGE’s exposed in just the past month, Chris—we’re one month into DOGE, and under Trump’s leadership, we’ve already saved $55 billion. Let’s let this experiment run for another year and a half. Get to $2 trillion. And send every American a check for $5,000 saying, ‘We are back.’”
TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chriscuomo; doge; dogedividend; elon; elonmusk; fishbackdiscount; jamesfishback; wholetthedogeout
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1 posted on 02/20/2025 5:37:54 AM PST by RoosterRedux
To: RoosterRedux
elon musk didn’t think to give money back to the taxpayers... i hate him. thanks cuomo for pointing this oversight out to me. / sarc
2 posted on 02/20/2025 5:41:55 AM PST by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world or something )
To: RoosterRedux
If we can’t stop the grift and re-distribution of wealth, now, we never will.
To: RoosterRedux
They are only at 2.75% of their goal.
While I support what they are doing, if you rapidly cut $2 trillion out of the economy it probably would be a disaster.
The economy is addicted to high government spending and government employment.
4 posted on 02/20/2025 5:45:13 AM PST by Williams (Thank God for the election of President Trump!)
To: teeman8r
The best thing for taxpayers is to pay down the debt not throw more “free” money logs on the inflation fire. But by all means lets all be democrats.
5 posted on 02/20/2025 5:45:14 AM PST by Mastador1
To: Williams
They offered 8 months pay.
Now fire thousands of probies.
Offer 4 months pay. Stay out of the way of those who accept.
To: RoosterRedux
The national debt is around 1.25% of the the GDP of our country, while its always nice to get money, reality is, this money needs to pay down the deficit.
THe US owes something like 36 TRILLION dollars, its total tax revenue per year is only about 4.9 Trillion, and we spend 6.75 Trillion a year. That means, if we stopped borrowing money today, and the Fed took every single penny it got in income, and the debt had a zero percent interest rate, it would take 7+ years to fully pay off the national debt.
Reality is the cost of just SERVICING our debt per year, is rapidly approaching 1 TRILLION dollars... that’s JUST THE INTEREST the US is paying annually on its existing debt.
So, even if they were to cut 1.75 TRILLION dollars in spending to get spending and revenues in line, nearly 20% of all Federal Revenues will be spent JUST ON DEBT PAYMENTS.
No we shouldn’t spend 1.75 TRILLION dollars (5000 *330,000,000) as “dividends”... IF DOGE finds 1.75 Trillion in fraud and waste and corruption in the annual budget we actually would have a balanced budget. Which is a HUGE step in the right direction. Once there retirement of the debt must occur, priority has to be to get that debt balance down.
7 posted on 02/20/2025 5:52:08 AM PST by HamiltonJay
To: RoosterRedux
Way too early. Look at it this time next year.
8 posted on 02/20/2025 5:53:16 AM PST by dynachrome (Auslander Raus!)
To: All
DOGE is looking for help from the general public
DOGE via X ^ | 2-16-25 | DOGE Staff
Posted on 2/17/2025, 4:59:20 PM by Strict9
Direct your insights for reducing waste, fraud, and abuse,
along with any helpful ideas, to the relevant DOGE affiliates
(found on the Affiliates tab).
<><>@DOGE_USDA,
<><>@DOGE_SSA, etc.
Will add more affiliates over time.
Before Biden got ousted from office he hid $20 billion tax dollars at an
“outside financial group — Citibank,” (it could be traced via govt documents).
Biden’s money-hungry EPA connived the bundle
via his misnomered “Inflation Reduction Act.”
Climate groups had their hands out......
Biden slobbered over Ga Democratic loser, Stacey
Abrams, and awarded $2 billion to her “climate group”......
Power Forward Communities — is a n/p sucking up to multiple left-wing groups.
The Georgia Democrat loser stated she was “thrilled”
to be part of it, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
To: Williams
If the $2 trillion is saved by eliminating waste, inefficiency, and fraud, the money doesn't vanish—it stays in the economy but is redirected to more productive uses. This could actually boost economic efficiency and growth.
For example, if businesses and individuals keep more of their income through lower taxes, receive direct payments like the proposed $5,000 checks, or if the national debt is paid down (bringing overall interest rates down), consumer spending and investment could increase.
That said, Washington DC and northern Virginia might get severely pinched.
10 posted on 02/20/2025 5:57:53 AM PST by RoosterRedux ("There's nothing so inert as a closed mind" )
To: HamiltonJay
That would be my first inclination also. I hate debt.
But there is some merit to enlisting the taxpayer's enthusiasm for and cooperation with DOGE.
11 posted on 02/20/2025 6:00:10 AM PST by RoosterRedux ("There's nothing so inert as a closed mind" )
To: RoosterRedux
Clearly government can’t be trusted with all this money - send it back to people who PAY taxes.
12 posted on 02/20/2025 6:02:32 AM PST by 1Old Pro
To: RoosterRedux
I understand people love money... however as I said 5k per citizen would be 1.75 TRILLION DOLLARS. and 1.75 TRILLION, like or not we would have to BORROW to pay.
Annual deficit right now is about 1.75 TRILLION dollars.
And DOGE savings aren’t all in one year, cancelling a 5 year contract that pays 1 million a year, saves 5 Million total but only 1 Million per year.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury.”
13 posted on 02/20/2025 6:04:25 AM PST by HamiltonJay
To: RoosterRedux
You understand the national annual deficit is 1.75 TRILLION.
If DOGE is able to find 1.75 TRILLION in annual waste, it would make the budget balanced, if you then decide to spend that money elsewhere, you are continuing debt spending.
Current national debt is 1.25% of GDP or around 36 TRILLION dollars.
The debt service alone is nearly a Trillion dollars a year.
14 posted on 02/20/2025 6:06:29 AM PST by HamiltonJay
To: RoosterRedux
Perhaps since we’ve already dealt with being extorted err i mean over taxed perhaps the government should pay down the debt and eliminate the deficit and well get taxed less going forward.
15 posted on 02/20/2025 6:06:29 AM PST by datricker (Go Trump/Vance!)
To: RoosterRedux
Sorry that should be 125% of GDP but 1.25%... I wish it was 1.25%... The US would be unstoppable if that was all the debt we were carrying.
16 posted on 02/20/2025 6:07:30 AM PST by HamiltonJay
To: Mastador1; teeman8r; RoosterRedux
The best thing for taxpayers is to pay down the debt not throw more “free” money logs on the inflation fire. But by all means lets all be democrats.
My thinking exactly (almost).
It is more important to slow that hemoraging of dollars than to get the PR points of a check from the government in the mail.
Plus there would be the expense of the generating and mailing the checks.
Stopping all of the grift by DOGE is great but it is only scratching the surface of the mounting deficit.
I think it is more important to reduce the budget deficit than the moral boost that the checks would generate.
17 posted on 02/20/2025 6:12:44 AM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
To: HamiltonJay
If DOGE is able to find 1.75 TRILLION in annual waste, it would make the budget balanced, if you then decide to spend that money elsewhere, you are continuing debt spending.
Who suggested this: "If you then decide to spend that money elsewhere"?
18 posted on 02/20/2025 6:22:06 AM PST by RoosterRedux ("There's nothing so inert as a closed mind" )
To: Williams
I have been thinking about the pros and cons and have a proposal that should be a win win for everybody.
Musk and his team create a DOGE Highlights document that is a couple of pages on two sided hard copy paper.
That document identifies the biggest and most bizarre cost savings for the period.
Once a quarter the Highlights is snail mailed out to all Americans with a notification that they have received a direct deposit—a return of their money stolen and wasted by the Democrats.
Even if the amount is only a thousand dollars or so the message is sent and received—somebody has our back—for a change.
19 posted on 02/20/2025 6:23:11 AM PST by cgbg (The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.)
To: RoosterRedux
Apply to debt is the wrong answer, because the next Dimocrat elected will just borrow again. But just sending out checks is not the answer either. Maybe purchase Greenland.
20 posted on 02/20/2025 6:26:47 AM PST by krug
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