James Fishback said that the whole idea occurred to him in a recent dream: sending dividends checks of US taxpayers with any money that the Eld Musk Efficiency Department Save, since it dismantles it to parts of the federal government.
The idea took off on Tuesday when Fishback tweeted about it and Musk replied, promising to share the idea with Trump. The president himself promoted the details of Fishback’s idea from the stage at the FII priority summit in Miami Beach on Wednesday.
“A new concept is even being considered in which we give 20% of the Lege savings to US citizens, and 20% will pay the debt, because the numbers are incredible, Elon,” Trump said.
But if Trump follows the plan as foreshback foresee, low -income Americans may not benefit.
Fishback, CEO of the investment firm Azoria, who briefly worked with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy when dege just taking off, told NBC News in an interview that woke up from that dream and, working with the principal investigator in his company, composed, compound. A brief proposal to send millions of American household checks.
“We have this thing in approximately two and a half hours,” Fishback said Wednesday. “We send it to [White House chief of staff] SUBSTAVE [Wiles]He sent it to some people in the administrator, sent it to some people in the treasure, and here we are one day later, and shares with Elon President Trump. And so is exciting. “
The episode illuminated the speed with which Musk can help attract the president’s attention to seemingly random ideas, even one of a little known 30 -year -old investor, which float on his social media platform X.
Something like a “dividend dux” would not be a completely strange concept for Trump; Follow the play book of a Pandemic era program of its first mandate. Then, the government sent direct payments to the Americans under the name of the deputy president.
“The president of the United States must sign the checks, and the checks must include the word dux, very simply, because we have to be honest,” said fishback, adding: “If I am the CEO of Azoria and I cut a check Every month, my name is in it. He is responsible for these savings. “
The difference during the pandemic was that the people who did below a certain amount received checks.
In his proposal, Fishback begins from the presumption that Dege will reach $ 2 billion in cuts to the government. Take 20% of those savings, or $ 400 billion, and divide them between 79 million contribution homes to receive $ 5,000 each. It is important to highlight that the refund would be sent only to households that are contributors of net income, people who pay more in taxes that return, with low -income Americans that do not qualify for the statement. According to the PEW Research Center, most Americans who have a adjusted gross income of less than $ 40,000 effectively pay any federal income tax.
Since dividend controls would be financed by dollars that have already been assigned instead of the stimulus controls financed by deficit, writes fishback, would not worsen inflation.
“The Dux Dividend is different from past stimulus controls (for example, the American rescue plan of 2021) because only homes that pay taxes receive it,” he writes. “Households that pay taxes are more likely to save (not spend) a transfer payment such as dividend Dux, since consumption is a lower part of their income. … there is nothing inflationary to pay the debt, save emergencies or invest in university or retirement. In fact, debt payments are actually deflation. “
In an interview, Fishback said that the dividend that only goes to homes above a certain income threshold should relieve concerns about any inflationary pressure that would cause reimbursements, and added that the controls of the pandemic era were “indiscriminately” sent ” .
“Many low -income households essentially saw transfer payments of 25 to 30% of their annual income …”, said fishback, adding: “This is destined exclusively to households that are net payers of the Federal Income Tax, And what that means is that they have a lower propensity to spend and a greater propensity to save a transfer payment such as Doge dividend. “
However, even among Republicans, there is no consensus to send checks from Americans with money that Doge can save, whose total amount is, so far, unclear. The group states on its website that it has saved $ 55 billion so far, but some statements about their work have not resisted the most basic scrutiny. In an example, Dege claimed to have saved $ 8 billion of a single contract canceled in the Department of National Security. It turns out that this contract clearly stated that it was for only $ 8 million.
Initially, Musk promised that Dege would find $ 2 billion in savings before the middle of next year, but since then he has softened his expectations.
“We have to find out if money is saved before promising check -up checks,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, adding: “I thought it was about taking a break to reduce our deficit. Then, if you give a Dividend, that certainly does not help in that sense.
As for the idea that reimbursements will be reserved for US homes above a certain income threshold, Zandi agreed that this model would lead to a higher rate of receptors that save payments instead of spending them immediately.
“We are cutting hair,” he said. “These are really things on the margin. The broadest point is … Doge has a long way to go here to see if Dege saves something and, ultimately, it is a benefit to the economy or not before starting talking about dividend controls. “
When asked about the idea at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, the president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, Republican of La-La., Did not seem warm to the proposal.
“Well, look. I mean, politically that would be great for us, you know. He gives everyone a check, ”said Johnson. “But if you think of our basic principles, law, fiscal responsibility is what we do as conservatives. That is our brand. And we have a federal debt of $ 36 billion, we have a giant deficit with which we are fighting. I think we must pay the credit card, right?
From the CPAC scenario that same day, Musk said he discussed the proposal with Trump and that the president is on board. Musk, the richest man in the world who has become perhaps the most influential presidential advisor, said: “It seems that … that is something we are going to do.”
The White House declined to comment on the proposal.
Fishback traveled to Washington this week and said he had a series of promising conversations about the proposal with the interested parties, although he would not disclose with whom. He published a video that showed him a brief conversation with Musk on Thursday.
“Now seek, for people who want to criticize this plan and say, well, Dege would never deliver $ 2 billion in total savings, we do not agree, but suppose they are fine in that,” said Fishback. “Let’s say they are only $ 1 billion. Ok, then the check goes from $ 5,000 to $ 2,500. Suppose there are only $ 500 billion. … then the check is $ 1,250. That is real money. “
“I have to tell you the truth here. It is not necessarily the amount in dollars, “he added.” This is the government’s symbolism that sends money in the form of restitution to compensate for working Americans, either in the east of Baltimore or if they are in the east of Palestine that The Government used badly and abused its tax dollars earned with so much effort. “
But as Zandi pointed out, the cuts itself are not released from possible economic consequences.
“It’s not that there is a free lunch here,” he said. “So, if you shoot people, that will be a success for the economy. It has a cost. You have to see exactly what are the consequences of all this in the broader economy, and that is just the short term. What happens to the long term? You are doing the assumption here, at least the implicit assumption, that the work you are cutting and that the work you are really reducing was not important, [that] There was no benefit from those who worked in FAA or USAID or FTC and FDA. “
“That is a fairly strong position to take that these works have no benefit or long -term importance, which are not doing things that are important for the operation of our economy and the nation,” he added. “I don’t pretend to know, but I don’t think anyone else knows.”
